Why are the “FromBody” and “FromUri” attributes needed in ASP.NET Web API`?

When the ASP.NET Web API calls a method on a controller, it must set values for the parameters, a process called parameter binding.

By default, Web API uses the following rules to bind parameters:

• If the parameter is a “simple” type, Web API tries to get the value from the URI. Simple types include the .NET primitive types (int, bool, double, and so forth), plus TimeSpan, DateTime, Guid, decimal, and string, plus any type with a type converter that can convert from a string.
• For complex types, Web API tries to read the value from the message body, using a media-type formatter.

So, if you want to override the above default behaviour and force Web API to read a complex type from the URI, add the [FromUri] attribute to the parameter. To force Web API to read a simple type from the request body, add the [FromBody] attribute to the parameter.

So, to answer your question, the need of the [FromBody] and [FromUri] attributes in Web API is simply to override, if necessary, the default behaviour as described above.