WebAPI not found - asp.net-mvc

Question

Sadly, I cannot get the most basic of things working with WebAPI
$.ajax({
url: "https://192.168.1.100/Api/Authentication/LogIn",
type: "POST",
contentType: "application/json",
data: "{ 'username': 'admin', 'password': 'MyPass' }",
error: function (r, s, e) { alert(e); },
success: function (d, s, r) { alert(s); }
});
I get "Not found"
API controller definition
public class AuthenticationController : ApiController
{
[HttpPost]
public bool LogIn(string username, string password)
{
return true;
}
}
If I remove HttpPost and replace it with HttpGet and then do
$.ajax({
url: "https://192.168.1.100/Api/Authentication/LogIn?username=admin&password=MyPass",
type: "GET",
error: function (r, s, e) { alert(e); },
success: function (d, s, r) { alert(s); }
});
That works fine.
What's wrong with WebAPI?

Answer 1

This article should help answer some of your questions.
http://encosia.com/using-jquery-to-post-frombody-parameters-to-web-api/
I believe the thinking here is that, especially in a RESTful API, you’ll want to bind data to the single resource that a particular method deals with. So, pushing data into several loose parameters isn’t the sort of usage that Web API caters to.
When dealing with post data, you can tell your action method to bind its parameters correctly like this:
public class LoginDto {
public string Username { get; set; }
public string Password { get; set; }
}
[HttpPost]
public bool LogIn(LoginDto login) {
// authenticate, etc
return true;
}

Answer 2

A couple things. Yahia's change is valid. Also, POSTs need a little direction in WebAPI to know where to look for their data. It's pretty silly in my opinion. If you know it's a POST, look at the message body. At any rate, change your POST to this and things will work. The attribute tells WebAPI to look in the body and the model does binding.
The AuthModel is just a simple model containing your username and password properties. Because of the way WebApi wants to bind to the input, this will make your life easier.
Read here for more details:
http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/working-with-http/sending-html-form-data,-part-1
Should be good to go with those changes.

Answer 3

Binding in WebAPI doesn't work if you use more than 1 parameter.
Though the same works in MVC controller.
In WebAPI use a class to bind two or more parameters. Read useful article:
http://encosia.com/using-jquery-to-post-frombody-parameters-to-web-api/
You may solve it the following ways:
1. Do the same in MVC action (it works)
2. Stay parameterless Post and read request like this
[HttpPost]
[ActionName("login")]
public async Task<bool> Post()
{
var str= await Request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
//
3. Incapsulate parameters to class like gyus prompted
}
Hope it helps ;)

Answer 4

POST action can have only 1 body...
There is no way to send 2 bodies (in your case 2 strings).
Because of this, the WebAPI parser would expect to find it in URL and not in body.
You can solve it by putting attributes and set that one parameter will come from URL and another from body.
In general, When there is only one object parameter in method - there is no need for the attribute [FromBody].
Strings would be expected to be in URL.
So - you can try send them in the URL as parameters (much like you did in GET)
Or - build a class to wrap it.
I would strongly recommend to use POST for login action.