Getting a 404 error when calling the controller

Question

I'm trying to create my first Alchemy plugin and I keep getting a 404 error when calling a method on the controller. I'm using the JavaScript proxy that gets generated automatically, but the URL that it contacts returns a File Not Found error (status 404).

This is my controller:

[AlchemyRoutePrefix("AddUserController")]
public class AddUserController : AlchemyApiController
{
    [HttpPost]
    [Route("NewUser")]
    public string NewUser(string name, string description)
    {
        ...
    }
}

And this is the command that calls it:

Alchemy.command("${PluginName}", "AddUserByName", 
{
    execute: function()
    {
        ....
        Alchemy.Plugins["${PluginName}"].Api.AddUserController.newUser(username, fullName)
                .success(function(response) {
                    console.log("Added new user: ", response);
                })
                .error(function(response) {
                    console.log("Error: ", response);
                });
        ....
    }
});

It ends up requesting the URL '/Alchemy/Plugins/Add_User_By_Name/api/AddUserController/NewUser' which then returns the 404 status code. That URL seems correct, according to the documentation.

What I've tried so far:

1. Changing the controller to use HttpGet instead of HttpPost.
2. Removed the AlchemyRoutePrefix attribute. The URL that it tried to contact changed as expected, but still gave a 404.
3. Double-checked that I'm using the right JavaScript method (verified using code completion from within the browser console).
4. Looked at the Big Box o' Samples to find an example that uses a controller. It doesn't seem to have one.
5. Adding the parameters as route variables (e.g. Route("NewUser/{name}/{description})"). Still got a 404 but I also noticed that backslashes were changed to forward-slashes. Update: It turns out that this does work if no parameters are empty and you don't use any backslashes. Unfortunately, I need to support both of those things.
6. Changing the method arguments to a single POCO class (UserModel with 2 string properties). This results in a 500 error instead (suggesting that the routing perhaps does work) but there were no details available anywhere (in the error message or in the server logs). It just said "An error has occurred.".
7. Added the [FromBody] attribute to the name and description arguments in the NewUser method. This resulted in the same generic error as #6.

Does anyone have any ideas on why the routing seems to fail?

Answer 1

Your #6 was on the right track, you will want a POCO class to bind to. I believe your JavaScript call is where things went wrong though. I recreated your method, but with the following signature:

[HttpPost]
[Route("NewUser")]
public string NewUser(NewUserModel model)
{
    return "Test " + model.Name + " and " + model.Description;
}

And NewUserModel looks like:

public class NewUserModel
{
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Description { get; set; }
}

I have the JavaScript call matching yours (I just plugged in dummy data):

var username = "DOMAIN\\SOMEUSER",
    fullName = "This is just a test of the national emergency broadcast system. Had this been an actual emergency, you'd be dead.";

Alchemy.Plugins["${PluginName}"].Api.AddUserController.newUser(username, fullName)
...

That produced a 500 error just like yours (only my response body had details, there's a setting in WebAPI that disables the exceptions from being out, I wonder if that is disabled in yours?)

The issue is with the JavaScript call... since this is a POST we'll want to ensure we're sending an object that matches the POCO's fields. So the model parameter of our action wasn't able to bind correctly, and model ends up being null. The [FromBody] can be used too if you didn't want a POCO, but you'd still have to pass the data as a JSON object. (I remember having some issues trying to get [FromBody] to work on a normal WebAPI project though... I didn't spend too much time with it though so was probably just doing something wrong.)

After changing the JavaScript to the following...

Alchemy.Plugins["${PluginName}"].Api.AddUserController.newUser({ name: username, description: fullName })
...

My execute method now works as expected and I can see the following logged to my console:

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

You have to remove the word 'Controller' when calling the js proxy. This should work:

//...
Alchemy.Plugins["${PluginName}"].Api.AddUser.newUser(username, fullName)
            .success(function(response) {
//...

Answer 3

To use backslashes you can use Regular Expressions in Route attribute as explained here.

I am assuming description could be blank and don't have backslash in it. Please try something like below:

[AlchemyRoutePrefix("AddUserController")]
public class AddUserController : AlchemyApiController
{
    [HttpGet]
    [Route("NewUser/{name:string:regex(\\w+\\\\w+)}/{description}")]
    public string NewUser(string name, string description = "")
    {
        ...
    }
}

Answer 4

You have different cases in the functions -- newUser vs NewUser -- Have you tried it with them being the same?