Running Angular and Web API in Visual Studio with IIS Express

I have a Visual Studio 2013 solution with a Web API project and a Web UI project (using Angular). I am using IIS Express.

Is there a way to set these projects up so that the Angular code can call the Web API project without hard-coding in the localhost and port number?

            return $http.get("http://localhost:1561/api/products")
                .then(function (response) {
                    return response.data;
                });

If I hard-code localhost:1561 instead of just using the "/api/products" style I have to manually change the code before deploying to production and change it back to run it during development.

Is there an easier way?

Thanks!

Solution

From what I understand, it is not possible to do what I was attempting to do. Here are the options:

1) Use IIS on the local machine. That way you can set up the paths/virtual directories as necessary. This also makes it easier to call the API from other browsers during debugging. Note: This does require that you then run Visual Studio in admin mode from this point forward.

2) Put the two projects into one. For me this was not a valid option because I am need to deliver the UI code completely separate from the API code.

Hope this helps others trying to work with Angular and Web API.