ASP.Net WebAPI OWIN: Why would Request.GetOwinContext() return null?

Question

In my production code we're having a problem where Request.GetOwinContext() always returns null. I setup a small test WebAPI controller to try and isolate the problem: ``` public class TestController : ApiController { [HttpGet] public async Task<IHttpActionResult> GetAsyncContext(string provider) { if (HttpContext.Current.GetOwinContext() == null) return this.BadRequest("No HttpContext.Current Owin Context"); if (Request.GetOwinContext() == null) return this.BadRequest("No Owin Context"); return this.Ok(); } [HttpGet] public IHttpActionResult GetContext(string provider) { if (HttpContext.Current.GetOwinContext() == null) return this.BadRequest("No HttpContext.Current Owin Context"); if (Request.GetOwinContext() == null) return this.BadRequest("No Owin Context"); return this.Ok(); } } ``` At first I thought it might have something to do with the action method running asynchronously, but after running the above, it turns out that in both versions, Request.GetOwinContext() returns null.…

Accepted Answer

Another cause (especially after upgrading form ASP.NET MVC4 and / or Empty WebApi Template) is missing Startup.cs file in the root of WebAPI project.

Also, make sure that you have installed Microsoft.Owin.Host.SystemWeb package.

```
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using Microsoft.Owin;
using Owin;

[assembly: OwinStartup(typeof(TestMVC5.Startup))]

namespace TestMVC5
{
    public partial class Startup
    {
        public void Configuration(IAppBuilder app)
        {
            ConfigureAuth(app);
        }
    }
}
```

ASP.Net WebAPI OWIN: Why would Request.GetOwinContext() return null?

Solution

Problem