ApiController and MVC Controller

I have more of a general question.

I am investigating the use of ApiController to possibly replace our MVC Controllers implementation. Since our MVC Controllers are used to render the view (via the various Actions), I am not if the ApiController will be a good replacement since it is mainly meant to create REST services and not for web applications.

Do I have the general idea right here or am I completely wrong?

Looking for some input since documentation is kind of scarce out there.

Thanks

Re: ApiController and MVC Controller

No, the two use different base classes that serve different purposes. You can see the difference just by looking at the types, MVC Controller and ApiController.

Here's a great quote from this page:

Note If you have worked with ASP.NET MVC, then you are already familiar with controllers. They work similarly in Web API, but controllers in Web API derive from the ApiController class instead of Controller class. The first major difference you will notice is that actions on Web API controllers do not return views, they return data.

Re: ApiController and MVC Controller

Thanks for your reply.

I do understand that they are different types altogether but I am wondering about the general usage of each. We already know that MVC Controller are mainly used to receive HTTP Requests, do some logic and return a view or redirect to another page. That is all clear to me. What is not clear is the intended usage of the Web API Controller. Is its purpose mainly to create REST services? Can a razr view post requests to an API Controller (not through ajax)?

Thanks again

Re: ApiController and MVC Controller

IAsfour
Can a razr view post requests to an API Controller (not through ajax)?

Yes it can. In fact nothing stops you write an HtmlMediaTypeFormatter to implement this but it will probably be a lot of work. Your question is a valid one and is a common issue raised by the community. I can see these two to be unified perhaps in the next version but not in this version.

But when it comes to the current version, you have to think if you are serving veiw or data: Use ASP.NET MVC to serve the views and use ASP.NET Web API to serve data,

Re: ApiController and MVC Controller

IAsfour
What is not clear is the intended usage of the Web API Controller. Is its purpose mainly to create REST services? Can a razr view post requests to an API Controller (not through ajax)?

See this post.

aliostad
In fact nothing stops you write an HtmlMediaTypeFormatter to implement this but it will probably be a lot of work

Just wanted to make it clear that Media Type mainly depend upon mime type. This is why there is an built-in FormUrlEncodedMediaTypeFormatter(instead of HtmlMediaTypeFormatter).