ASP.NET Web API session or something?

Solution 1:

in Global.asax add

public override void Init()
{
    this.PostAuthenticateRequest += MvcApplication_PostAuthenticateRequest;
    base.Init();
}

void MvcApplication_PostAuthenticateRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    System.Web.HttpContext.Current.SetSessionStateBehavior(
        SessionStateBehavior.Required);
}

give it a shot ;)

Solution 2:

Well, REST by design is stateless. By adding session (or anything else of that kind) you are making it stateful and defeating any purpose of having a RESTful API.

The whole idea of RESTful service is that every resource is uniquely addressable using a universal syntax for use in hypermedia links and each HTTP request should carry enough information by itself for its recipient to process it to be in complete harmony with the stateless nature of HTTP".

So whatever you are trying to do with Web API here, should most likely be re-architectured if you wish to have a RESTful API.

With that said, if you are still willing to go down that route, there is a hacky way of adding session to Web API, and it's been posted by Imran here http://forums.asp.net/t/1780385.aspx/1

Code (though I wouldn't really recommend that):

public class MyHttpControllerHandler
  : HttpControllerHandler, IRequiresSessionState
{
    public MyHttpControllerHandler(RouteData routeData): base(routeData)
    { }
}

public class MyHttpControllerRouteHandler : HttpControllerRouteHandler
{
    protected override IHttpHandler GetHttpHandler(RequestContext requestContext)
    {
        return new MyHttpControllerHandler(requestContext.RouteData);
    }
}

public class ValuesController : ApiController
{
   public string GET(string input)
   {
       var session = HttpContext.Current.Session;
       if (session != null)
       {
           if (session["Time"] == null)
           {
               session["Time"] = DateTime.Now;
           }
           return "Session Time: " + session["Time"] + input;
       }
       return "Session is not availabe" + input;
    }
}

and then add the HttpControllerHandler to your API route:

route.RouteHandler = new MyHttpControllerRouteHandler();

Solution 3:

In WebApi 2 you can add this to global.asax

protected void Application_PostAuthorizeRequest() 
{
    System.Web.HttpContext.Current.SetSessionStateBehavior(System.Web.SessionState.SessionStateBehavior.Required);
}

Then you could access the session through:

HttpContext.Current.Session

Solution 4:

You can use cookies if the data is small enough and does not present a security concern. The same HttpContext.Current based approach should work.

Request and response HTTP headers can also be used to pass information between service calls.