I’m wondering how many folks using the Microsoft development stack (IIS and/or ASP.NET) are actually using REST? If so, what forms of rest are being used?
REST can be categorized a zillion ways, but for the purpose of this question I’ll categorize it as follows:
- Radically REST: Using all the HTTP methods PUT/POST/GET/DELETE
- Moderate REST: Using GET/POST
- REST Hybrid: Uses just the GET or POST HTTP method, but follows RESTful principles of addressability and state.
In a class I’m teaching we’ve been trying to implement a ‘radically RESTful’ service on IIS, but we’ve been having difficulty implementing the PUT method. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of buzz on implementing PUT on IIS so I’m wondering how many people are actually using full blown REST? Are you using REST?
I think part of the reason for the lack of buzz around REST on the IIS stack has been Microsoft’s original adoption of SOAP as the way, truth and light when it came to web services – especially with Windows Communication Foundation being heavily SOAP focused.
They went on to release the WCF REST Starter Kit, to follow on from the release of .NET 3.5, and also the ADO.NET data services that are part of .NET 3.5 SP1.
As Magnus points out, Microsoft have since released the ASP.NET Web API which builds on the features of the ASP.NET MVC platform to provide a unified approach to RESTful services on IIS.