How To Create Web Api In Visual Studio 2010

Introduction to ASP.NET Web API

"ASP.NET Web API is a framework that simplifies the creation of HTTP services"

Using ASP.NET Web API we can create HTTP services those are non-SOAP based like plain XML or JSON strings etc. with added advantages.

Allowing to create resource-oriented services using the full features of HTTP.
Exposing services to a variety of clients easily like browsers or mobile devices etc.

Before diving into details while going through this ASP.NET Web API Tutorial, I would like to clarify one misconception that ASP.NET Web API has replaced WCF. WCF is still a powerful programming model for creating SOAP based services that use a variety of transport protocols like HTTP, TCP, Named Pipes or MSMQ etc. You can find the same implementation by using WCF REST in another article i.e. "5 simple steps to create your first RESTful service".

Learn the Foundation: HTTP & REST Concepts

Resources and URI

HTTP Methods

HTTP Status Codes

HTTP Content

Internet Media Types

REST

JSON and XML

Creating ASP.NET Web API service that supports CRUD (Create, Retrieve, Update, Delete) operations

Building a Real World Application using ASP.NET Core and Angular 2

Apart from Visual Studio 2010 or 2012, we also need MVC 4.0 to implement this HTTP service. For the purpose of this implementation, I am going to use Visual Studio 2010.
You can download MVC 4.0 for Visual Studio 2010 from Microsoft as follows:

Download Executable for MVC 4
ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Platform Installer for Visual Studio 2010 SP1

Following are 3 simple steps to create HTTP service that returns non-SOAP based data.

Create Web API Project
Prepare domain Model
Adding Controller class

Test your ASP.NET Web API skill by answering a simple Question.

You are designing an ASP.NET Web API application. You need to select an HTTP verb to allow blog administrators to moderate a comment. Which HTTP verb should you use?

A. GET
B. POST
C. DELETE
D. PUT

To further test your ASP.NET Web API skill, Take a Complete FREE Online Test or MCSD Practice Exam: 70-486 (Developing ASP.NET MVC Web Applications). Simply Click Here.

Correct Answer: D

Let's move forward step by step to create a simple HTTP service using ASP.NET Web API.

ASP.NET Web API Tutorial with Simplified Approach

1. Create Web API Project

Open Visual Studio and create "New Project" i.e. File -> New Project.
Choose "ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application" template and name project as "FirstWebAPIService".
When you click "OK" button, a new window will appear for selecting a sub-template. Actually for ASP.NET MVC 4 Web Application, we have multiple sub-options i.e. Empty, Internet Application, Web API etc.
Choose "Web API" and simply press "OK" button.

ASP.NET Web API Project

Web API Tutorial Template

A default ASP.NET MVC 4 Web API template project is created. As its an MVC application template, so you will easily find "Model", "View" and "Controller" folders inside it.

2. Preparing domain Model

Now in a second step in this asp.net web api tutorial, we need to prepare the model.

Right click on the "Model" folder and choose "Class" under "Add" from the context menu as shown in figure.
Name the class as "Product.cs".

Model for Web API

Product Model

Here is the code for Product class.

public class Product

{

public int ProductID { get ; set ; }

public string ProductName { get ; set ; }

public string ProductCategory { get ; set ; }

public int Price { get ; set ; }

}

3. Adding Controller Class
Controller class plays an important role, because request coming from client hits the controller first. Then the controller decides which model to use to serve the incoming request. So, in order to add a controller:

Right click on the "Controller" folder and choose "Controller" under "Add" from the context menu as shown in figure.
Name the controller as "ProductsController".

Product Controller in Web API Tutorial

First Web API Service

public class ProductsController : ApiController

{

Product [ ] products = new Product [ ]

{

new Product { ProductID = 1 , ProductName = "Product 1" , ProductCategory = "Category 1" , Price = 120 } ,

new Product { ProductID = 2 , ProductName = "Product 2" , ProductCategory = "Category 1" , Price = 100 } ,

new Product { ProductID = 3 , ProductName = "Product 3" , ProductCategory = "Category 2" , Price = 150 } ,

new Product { ProductID = 4 , ProductName = "Product 4" , ProductCategory = "Category 3" , Price = 90 }

} ;

public IEnumerable < Product > GetProducts ( )

{

return products ;

}

Don't forget to add "using FirstWebAPIService.Models;" at the top of the controller class.

Now, it's time to test your HTTP service using ASP.NET MVC Web API.
Run the application by pressing "CTRL+F5", Welcome window will appear as follows:

Output for ASP.NET Web API Service

In order to call our Product controller, change the URL as "http://localhost:XXXX/api/products". You will see the results as shown in following output window.

Rendered Content for Web API Service

Final output returned can be displayed differently by different browsers. Here is the output of google chrome version 29.0.1547.66.

Answer ASP.NET Web API Question to verify your skill.

You are working as a Web API developer with WebDevTutorials. You have developed a Student HTTP Service using ASP.NET Web API technology and you want to return a View from Web API method.

A. Use ViewBag.
B. Use Partial View against Web API method.
C. You can't return view from ASP.NET Web API method.
D. None of Above.

To further test your ASP.NET Web API skill, Take a Complete FREE Online Test or MCSD Practice Exam: 70-486 (Developing ASP.NET MVC Web Applications). Simply Click Here.

Correct Answer: C

Hopefully, this simple web api tutorial will be helpful for developers to code their first HTTP service using ASP.NET MVC Web API. Further, for performing all CRUD operations using Web API, Follow the click. Soon you will be able to download this ASP.NET Web API Tutorial PDF.

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