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While the configuration of Web API might
vary somewhat from project to project,

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every installation requires
at least one route,

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often referred to as the default route,
to be configured.

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If we don't configure at least one route,

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Web API won't know how to map incoming
requests to controller action methods.

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In our Web API register static method,

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we can use the HTTP configuration objects
routes property to configure a route.

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The routes property is of
type HTTP route collection,

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which provides a method named maphttproute
that can be used to map a route template

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When calling the map HTTP route method,
you supply a name for the route template,

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the route template itself, and
optionally any defaults or constraints for

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the route template.

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First, the name, name: "DefaultAPI",

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then routeTemplate For

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the route template, it's common to use for

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the default route api/{controller}/{id}.

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If you've configured routes for
the MVC framework,

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this route template will look familiar.

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Let's break it down and
review each of the route segments.

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The API literal path segment is to find

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in order to prevent collisions
between web API and NVC routes.

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We currently aren't using
NVC in our project, but

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I'm going to go ahead and include
the API prefix on my Web API routes

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just in case that changes in the future.

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The controller route parameter statement
is used to identify the controller to

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instantiate.

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The controller suffix is automatically
added to the routing controller name.

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The controller name should
represent the name of the resource

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that the controller's action
methods will operate against.

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The id route parameter is used
when retrieving a single resource.

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The route parameter value is mapped to an
action method parameter of the same name.

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Since the id route parameter is only
used when retrieving single resources,

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we need to indicate that it's optional.

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We can do that by supplying an anonymous
object for the defaults parameter and

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setting an ID property on the anonymous
object to the enumeration value

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RouteParameter.Optional.

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And that completes our default route.

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Notice that unlike the typical
default MVC route,

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the route template doesn't include a route
parameter segment for the action name.

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Next, we'll see how
the request HTTP method is used

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to determine the controller
action method to call.