Trouble passing datetime parameter to web service, in GET

Question

I created a web service using ASP .NET Web API. The method is:

    [HttpGet]
    [Route("service/{applicantUser}/{lastUpdate:datetime?}")]
    public IHttpActionResult getService(String applicantUser, DateTime? lastUpdate = null){
    // some stuff here

 }

If I call the WS in this way:

http://myserver/api/service/myusername/2008-12-10

all works good, and I obtain a correct json file. But if I try to add the time:

http://myserver/api/service/myusername/2008-12-10T12:30:00

I obtain the error 404 - Bad Request

Solution

The problem is with the colon (:) character in the URL which is not allowed. You can either put the parameter in the query string:

http://myserver/api/service/myusername/?lastUpdate=2008-12-10T12:30:00

Or disable the validation to check for potentially dangerous request paths by merging this to your web.config:

<system.web>
    <httpRuntime requestPathInvalidCharacters="" requestValidationMode="2.0" />
    <pages validateRequest="false" />
</system.web>

Comments

[Rob Hardy]

this should be parsable using Route("service/{applicantUser}#{lastUpdate:datetime?}")

[DavidG]

Really? Pretty sure anything after the # will not be passed to the server.

[Rob Hardy]

You're right! My mistake - Fortunately it seems you can also have a colon within a querystring which will be sent to the server, so that would be: http://myserver/api/service/myusername?t=2008-12-10T12:30:00

[GVillani82]

Ok, thank you! Do you think it is really dangerous disable the validation?

[DavidG]

Well I suppose it's there for a very good reason. But, better to make up your own mind and read the documentation msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh882339(v=vs.110).aspx

[anatol]

why do not use encoding for doing that stuff?

[DavidG]

@anatol Because that doesn't answer the question being asked.

[anatol]

@DavidG didn't get why not

[DavidG]

@anatol The question is about why the colon is causing problems, this answer tells you how to fix that. Whether you should pass the values encoded or not is a different question.

[anatol]

@DavidG I can't find any word about 'colon'. Anyway, could you answer - may it be kind of solution or not? I mean url encoding

[DavidG]

@anatol Of course it's a solution, but if you have a question, please ask one rather than commenting on other answers.

[anatol]

@DavidG I found your answer helpful, but still wonder why not encoding ) it is actual because encoding doesn't work for me, I'm getting 404

[Enrico]

MM-dd-yyyyTHH-mm-s doesn't work, but thanks for trying :)