Is there a default verb applied to a Web API ApiController method?

Question

I've been looking at the code (in https://github.com/patelsan/WebAPIAuthentication) from this article: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/630986/Cross-Platform-Authentication-With-ASP-NET-Web-API.

It's pretty good and seems to work fine. There are very few articles that explain this kind of token authentication, but this is the best I've seen. Note that I'm new to this technology and there's much to learn.

So, I noticed that the UsersController has this code:

public class UsersController : ApiController
{
    public Status Authenticate(User user)
    {
        . . .
    }
}

The Authenticate method doesn't start with a known HTTP verb, e.g. Get or Post, and there's no [HttpGet] or [HttpPost] attribute associated with this method, so how does the controller know with which verb to associate this method? Just by looking at the code, how can I tell which verb I need to use? Is there such a thing as a "default" verb if nothing matches?

By the way, in case you're wondering, the only verb that works is POST. I'd love to understand why that is the case.

WebApi works based on reflection and your parameter is complex parameter, most like you do not have any routing "api/authentication/:user". Since your class does not meet any GET routing parameter so POST makes a lot of sense to me — Dalorzo
@Dalorzo - it does "feel right", but you can send complex parameters on the query string. The Model Binder works just the same. — EBarr
@EBarr I know you can send complex parameter but that will required the URL routing also to exist for the complex object, it is what I meant — Dalorzo

EBarr EBarr · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-15T19:48:34

File this under learning something new every day!

Typically method name matching is thought of this way. Looking at the WebAPI source, however, there is a branch of logic for fallback. If the method name doesn't map (through attribute, or convention) to a supported HTTP verb, then the default is POST.

By default action selection happens through ReflectedHttpActionDescriptor class. The important method here is GetSupportedHttpMethods(). In relevant part the code reads:

        if (supportedHttpMethods.Count == 0)
        {
            // Use POST as the default HttpMethod
            supportedHttpMethods.Add(HttpMethod.Post);
        }

You can see the full source here (around the middle of the file).

Is there a default verb applied to a Web API ApiController method?

2 Answers