MVC Web API in SharePoint site - sharepoint

Question

We're moving most of our web presence to our SharePoint server in the cloud. Our current setup uses a MVC Web API for data retrieval from DB. We do not want to host the API under a separate domain and thus need to move the API under SharePoint domain as well. There is no relaxation in this requirement.
Is there a way to publish my API to SharePoint? Or is there a SharePoint specific API project template in Visual Studio? If not what are my options?
EDIT Initially I have asked that MVC API needs to be part of the SharePoint 2013. But now things are such that API can reside anywhere - inside or outside - of SharePoint, as long as it is accessible from the root domain - which so far it seems not allowed (Error message: Calls to WebProxy without an app context are not allowed."). Still trying to see if this is possible, and if yes, how?

Answer 1

It sounds like the proxy you want to create is already part of SharePoint JSOM. Have a look at these:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/fp179895(v=office.15).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/jj245162(v=office.15).aspx
This will allow you to overcome cross origin issues. The SP.WebProxy and SP.WebRequestInfo allow you to use javascript to make a call outside of the domain where the javascript executes.
What really happens behind the scenes is that SharePoint's javascript API sends the request to your sharepoint.com tenancy server, which will then invoke the service from the SharePoint server, and return the response back to your javascript. You can implement it like so in a sharepoint-hosted app:
// this javascript executes from my-company.sharepoint.com
var responseDocument = undefined;
$('#cross').click(function () {
var ctx = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var request = new SP.WebRequestInfo();
request.set_url('https://www.somewebapi.com/my/custom/route');
request.set_method("GET");
responseDocument = SP.WebProxy.invoke(ctx, request); // executes on sp server
ctx.executeQueryAsync(onSuccess, onError);
});
function onSuccess() {
var response = responseDocument.get_body();
alert('success ' + response);
}
function onError(err) {
alert(JSON.stringify(err));
}
...and since the remote api hosted at the other domain is called from the server, you don't have to worry about any of the cross-domain issues.
Update
To answer your update, please check the results from this link.
Have you added the remote endpoint to your AppManifest.xml?

Answer 2

SharePoint doesn't give you a chance to define you own routes. Thats why you can not use old fashioned SharePoint solution to publish asp.net web api. You may consider using apps for SharePoint. It's like separate App with some connections to SharePoint.

Answer 3

Ultimately switched to JSONP solution. Installed the WebApiContrib.Formatting.JsonP in my MVC Web API project in Visual Studio, and modified SharePoint JavaScript, that calls the API, to include ?callback=? (callback is equal to question mark). Everything stays the same. No SharePoint's proxy caller needed! No SharePoint app needed!