Optimizely Custom POST API

Introduction

When creating custom API controllers for an Optimizely B2B project it’s possible you’ll want to create POST calls. Following the architecture of the base code you will likely have a controller that inherits from the BaseApiController and utilizes ExecuteAsync or Execute methods to map your parameters and results and run a service method.

What can sometimes go unnoticed is that any result you’d like to return from a POST call requires a populated “Uri” string field on your result model.  This is because the Optimizely BaseApiController will not return the API result model with the POST response if the model doesn’t have a Uri value or it is null or blank. See the code section below from the BaseApiController Execute method:

            if (this.Request.Method == HttpMethod.Post)
            {
                if (apiResult.Uri.IsBlank())
                {
                    return this.StatusCode(HttpStatusCode.Created);
                }

                return this.Created(apiResult.Uri, apiResult);
            }

You can see that without a Uri parameter on the apiResult object, the method will simply return a “Created” status code as the result and omit the actual apiResult object payload.  So, if you are seeing empty results from your custom POST method, it’s likely you have not properly set the Uri field and the object is being left off the response.  If your response model inherits from BaseModel, then it already has a Uri parameter and you simply need to set it, likely in your mapper.  Several of the Optimizely B2B API flows will set the Uri parameter in the mapper, like the AccountsV1 endpoint does in GetAccountMapper:

        public virtual AccountModel MapResult(
            AddAccountResult serviceResult,
            HttpRequestMessage request
        )
        {
            var accountModel = this.GetAccountMapper.MapResult(
                serviceResult.GetAccountResult,
                request
            );

            accountModel.Password = accountModel.IsGuest ? serviceResult.Password : string.Empty;
            accountModel.BillToId = serviceResult.BillTo.Id;
            accountModel.ShipToId = serviceResult.ShipTo.Id;

            accountModel.Uri = this.UrlHelper.Link(
                "AccountV1",
                new { accountid = Constants.WebApiCurrent },
                request
            );

            return accountModel;
        }

The Uri should accurately identify the way that object could be resourced.  In this case, the UrlHelper.Link method returns the Get Account method which includes the Account Id.  If you have any further questions or issues, feel free to reach out to me at dylan.barter@xcentium.com.