ASP Core: how to route to API Controller that is located in the area folder? - asp.net-core

Question

The structure:
+ MyProj
+ Areas
+ Configuration
- Pages
- ConfigurationApiController.cs
To create controller without Controllers folder was proposed by VS2017 and it is ok for me since I use Razor Pages and do not need Controllers folder:
Those doesn't work:
http://localhost:8080/api/Users
http://localhost:8080/api/GetUsers
http://localhost:8080/Configuration/api/Users
http://localhost:8080/Configuration/api/GetUsers
Controller defined:
[Route("api")]
[Produces("application/json")]
[ApiController]
public class ConfigurationApiController : ControllerBase
{
private readonly ApplicationSettings applicationSettings;
[HttpGet]
public ActionResult GetUsers()
{
Mvc routing configured standard way:
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute(
name: "default",
template: "{controller=Home}/{action=Index}/{id?}");
});
How to route to GetUsers action of ConfigurationApiController ?

Answer 1

Modify the api route and add the Area Attribute to provide the area name for [area] route.
[Area("Configuration")]
[Route("[area]/api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
public class ConfigurationApiController : ControllerBase
{
}
That's all, and it can be accessed at http://localhost:8080/Configuration/api/ConfigurationApi

Answer 2

Some other routing options:
Using AspNetCore.RouteAnalyzer working option found: http://localhost:8080/api (yes, without action)
After removing web APIs attributes
// [Route("api")]
// [Produces("application/json")]
// [ApiController]
then http://localhost:8080/ConfigurationApi/GetUsers
it could be ok but there is no area in the routing and it seems "routing to the area by conventions" doesn't work is asp core:
ASP Core: how to configure area for api controller without AreaAttribute (or how to enable convention area routing for Api controller)?
and https://github.com/aspnet/AspNetCore/issues/7042
Also in this case ContentResult { Content = json, ContentType = "application/json" } should be return but this is ok for me since I prefer to use in place serialization instead of stream serializers.
This routes to http://localhost:8080/Configuration/api
[Area("Configuration")]
[Route("[area]/api")]
[Produces("application/json")]
[ApiController]
other option: [Route("[area]/api/[action]")] routes to http://localhost:8080/Configuration/api/GetUsers
when removing area attribute throws the run-time error Error: While processing template '[area]/api', a replacement value for the token 'area' could not be found. Available tokens: 'action, controller'. To use a '[' or ']' as a literal string in a route or within a constraint, use '[[' or ']]' instead.
//[Area("Configuration")]
[Route("[area]/api")]
[Produces("application/json")]
[ApiController]
To support #Url.Action(action: "myArea", controller: "myControllerApi") routing should be configured manually.
Asp Core routes:
app.UseMvc(routes =>
{
routes.MapRoute(
name: "defaultArea",
template: "{area:exists}/{controller}/{action}"); // matches only those where area route value is defined
});
Asp Core 3 routes (startup Configure):
app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
endpoints.MapRazorPages();
endpoints.MapControllerRoute(
name: "defaultArea",
pattern: "{area:exists}/{controller}/{action}");
});