Call web API string parameter - ajax

Question

I have this function
[System.Web.Http.HttpGet]
[System.Web.Http.ActionName("StartProcess")]
public object StartProcess(string items)
{
//do stuff
}
trying to call with
$.ajax({
url: '/api/Details/StartProcess',
type: 'get',
contentType: 'application/json',
data: items,
success: function() {
logger.log('Successful', "", "", true);
},
error: function(error) {
var jsonValue = jQuery.parseJSON(error.responseText);
});
Keep getting 404 error. The rest of my calls work but this is the first one that I need to send a parameter.
items is just a comma delimited string.
this is my route info.
routes.MapRoute(
name: "Default",
url: "{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id=Urlameter.Optional }
);
Any ideas what I am missing?

Answer 1

you are getting 404 error because your routing table is not able to resolve the url "/api/Details/StartProcess"
In order to make the WebAPI routing work you need to modify the "MapHttpRoute()" function of route collection and not the "MapRoute()"
So please change the API routing as below (assuming you are using default api) and it should work fine.
routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
defaults: new { action = RouteParameter.Optional, id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);

Answer 2

The parameter in Web API needs to follow the parameter in routing config.
In your example the easiest would be to change string items to string id.
Alternatly you could add api/{controller}/{action}/{items} to the route config.

Answer 3

Also, if you don't fancy changing your API route config (which would lead to minor complications with calling simple Get and Put methods) you can change your controller action annotation from
[System.Web.Http.ActionName("StartProcess")]
to
[Route("StartProcess/{items}")]
Also, you'll need to annotate your controller with:
[RoutePrefix("api/details")]