The route template cannot start with a '/' or > '~' character and it cannot contain a '?' character

asp.net-web-api asp.net-web-api2 routeattribute
Dave New picture Dave New · Nov 21, 2014 · Viewed 19k times · Source

I am getting the an exception with the following route attribute:

[Route("{id}?action=decline")]

Exception:

An exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in System.Web.Http.dll but was not handled in user code

Additional information: The route template cannot start with a '/' or '~' character and it cannot contain a '?' character.

Why is this not allowed?

Answer

Stefan Ossendorf picture Stefan Ossendorf · Nov 23, 2014

I think this isn't allowed, because a query string is not part of a URI-Path. (See RFC3986 Section 3.3 Path , it doesn't include the query part)
But I have no hard fact to prove that :/. Perhaps these links help you:

Routing based on query string parameter name
QueryString with MVC 5 AttributeRouting in Web API 2
Attribute Routing in ASP.NET Web API 2

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