How to call a Visual Basic API with parameters - vb.net

Question

I have the following controller:
Public Class GuestController
Inherits ApiController
Public Function SaveValue(<FromUri> ByVal passedName As String) As Savedata
'Get guest data from database
Dim guestResult As New Savedata
guestResult.Name = passedName.ToLower()
Return guestResult
End Function
End Class
And I have the following model:
Public Class Savedata
Public Property ID As Integer
Public Property Name As String
End Class
Just as a test, I want to be able to call this API passing it a value of JOE and have the API return joe to me.
First I tried
http://localhost:12976/api/guest?a=JOE
But that gave me this error:
No HTTP resource was found that matches the request URI 'http://localhost:12976/api/guest?a=JOE'.
No action was found on the controller 'Guest' that matches the request.
Then I found that I needed to name the url parameter the same as the parameter I have defined in my ApiController function. So, for my second attempt, I sent in this:
http://localhost:12976/api/guest?passedName=JOE
But that gave me this error:
The requested resource does not support http method 'GET'.
So now I'm confused as I don't specify an http method at all.
Ideas? Suggestions?
Thanks.

Answer 1

By default if making a request from the browser, unless otherwise stated, the request will be a GET request
But as the name of the action is not following default naming conventions (like having a Get prefix), the framework is unable to infer which HTTP verb the action accepts.
Use the HttpGet attribute on the action to let the framework know that the action accepts HTTP GET requests
Public Class GuestController
Inherits ApiController
<HttpGet()> _
Public Function SaveValue(<FromUri> ByVal passedName As String) As Savedata
'Get guest data from database
Dim guestResult As New Savedata
guestResult.Name = passedName.ToLower()
Return guestResult
End Function
End Class