Custom route in web api just redirects to current page

Question

Being a noob in MVC web api there is probably something very obvious I'm missing..

However, In my ProjectController I have the following method with attributes (I know this kind of method should be POST but just testing easily...):

[Route("api/projects/archive/{id:int}")]
[HttpGet]    
public void Archive(int id)
{
    _projectService.Archive(id);
}

However, when I open my URL such as:

http://localhost:49923/api/projects/archive/1

The page simply redirects to the current URL, and the archive method is not called. I also have a breakpoint at the method to verify it's not hit.

My best guess is I also have to update my web api route config which is the default, but I just assumed the route attribute was enough?

Here is my web api route config:

public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
{
    // Web API configuration and services

    // Web API routes
    config.MapHttpAttributeRoutes();

    config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
        name: "DefaultApi",
        routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
        defaults: new {id = RouteParameter.Optional});

    config.Formatters.JsonFormatter.SupportedMediaTypes
        .Add(new MediaTypeHeaderValue("text/html"));

}

What am I doing wrong here? :-)

EDITS:

Clearification 1 - my ProjectController:

public class ProjectsController : ApiController
{

    private ProjectService _projectService;

    public ProjectsController()
    {
        _projectService = new ProjectService();
    }

    [Route("api/projects/archive/{id:int}")]
    [HttpGet]

    public void Archive(int id)
    {
        _projectService.Archive(id);
    }
}

Clearification 2 - redirect:

So lets say I stand on the homepage (/). I then go to the URL "http://localhost:49923/api/projects/archive/1", it will just reload page and leave my back at the home page.

Answer 1

The Web API config is configured correctly. Ensure that the controller and the action are constructed properly

public class ProjectController : ApiController {

    //...other code removed for brevity

    [HttpGet]
    [Route("api/projects/archive/{id:int}")]//Matches GET api/projects/archive/1
    public IHttpActionResult Archive(int id) {
        _projectService.Archive(id);
        return Ok();
    }    
}