Can ASP.NET Web API handle sub-resources with different controllers

Question

Imagine a system with Users, Groups with corresponding ApiControllers. Then imagine following access patterns:

/api/users                  
/api/users/1
/api/users?groupId=1    <- #1 returns users belonging to group id 1 via Get(int? groupId)

/api/groups/
/api/groups/1
/api/groups/1/users     <- #2 sub resource, returns users belonging to group id 1

Is it possible to delegate responsibility of #2 to #1's Get(int? groupId) method? I'd like to keep responsibility of handling sub-resources with their original Controller. In another words, If a sub-resource also exists as resource then sub-resource handling should be? delegated to primary resource controller...

P.S. Now, I am not sure if the above approach is "cosher" with RESTfull styles, that is whole other discussion...

s33sharp_94 · Accepted Answer · 2012-05-28 21:08:12Z

WEB Api Beta isn't supporting method level attribute for routing. They said, that are thinking of improving the routing story for the next release.

For now the only way (as i know) is to map explicitly those routes. In your case:

 // for your rest style api 
 routes.MapHttpRoute(
     name: "UserGroups",
     routeTemplate: "api/groups/{groupID}/users",
     defaults: new { controller = "Users"},
     constraints: new { groupID = @"\d+" } 
 );

and for RPC URI style the default route will work as glance.

 routes.MapHttpRoute(
           name: "ApiDefault",
           routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
           defaults: new { controller = "Users", id = RouteParameter.Optional }
       );

And also you can override DefaultHttpControllerFactory class to create in your way instances of controllers.

Hope this help.

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