MVC Routes within WebAPI controller

Question

Quick question regarding routes within MVC and WebAPI. I have added a route to route config.cs:

        routes.MapRoute(
            name: "ConfirmEmail",
            url: "ConfirmEmail/{userid}",
            defaults: new { controller = "Email", action = "ConfirmEmail" }
        );

This is registered in the global.asax as per normal:

RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);

I am trying to generate a URL for use within an email which is sent as part of a function call within a WebAPI controller function. I am using the UrlHelper.Link function to attempt to generate a URL, however I receive an error saying the route cannot be found by name:

var url = Url.Link("ConfirmEmail", new { userid = "someUserId" });

Now I was under the impression route dictionaries were shared in both MVC and WebAPI controller contexts however I cannot see the MVC routes within the route dictionary of the incoming Web API call (on the Request object) however the WebAPI routes I have defined are there.

Am I missing something?

Answer 1

The routing tables for MVC and Web API are completely different. While the syntax looks similar, the route table they operate on is different.

However, MVC uses static objects for configuration, so you can access the global MVC route table from within an API controller using System.Web.Routing.RouteTable.Routes.

This won't allow you to use Url.Link however, so I would suggest using a constant within your route registration for the format.