Question

I have read about the asp.net Web API ,, but i am not sure if i understand the concept behind the Web API tool. now let say that i have defined a Controller that is derived from the APIController, and i can call this Controller using URL , and then the Controller will return JSON result to the client,,,

so does this means that the APIController inside my asp.net MVC web application is exposed as a RESTfull web service?
BR

Answer 1

Whether or not your API is considered ‘RESTfull’ is a question of design, not a question of which libraries/project templates are used. Remember that the whole point of an API is to expose a simple programming interface – how it’s implemented behind the scenes isn’t important in that regard.

However, the WebAPI project template does lend itself well to designing a restfull service due to its built in design principles.

The basic idea behind a REST API is:

• Use HTTP protocol (which WebAPI does, so check)
• Expose a simple API for handling data, usually with POST/GET/PUT/DELETE methods tied to data handling (this is what the WebAPI design lends itself well to)
• Transfer data in an interoperable format (JSON, XML, also easily doable in WebAPI)

It’s not much different from designing a REST API using basic MVC Controller/Actions, WebAPI just makes it a bit easier.

Here’s a nice video series: http://www.asp.net/web-api/videos/getting-started/your-first-web-api