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Introduction to WebAPI. We
shall see what it is with two
sample real world
implementation.
Type Article
Licence CPOL
First Posted 19 Feb 2013
Views 132,105
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Introduction to ASP.NET Web API
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Introduction
ASP.NET Web API is a framework that makes it easy to build HTTP services that reach a broad range of
clients, including browsers and mobile devices. With WebAPI content negotiation, we can return data
based on the client requests. What I mean is, if the client is requesting the data to be returned as JSON or
XML, the WebAPI framework deals with the request type and returns the data appropriately based on the
media type. By default WebAPI provides JSON and XML based responses.
WebAPI is an ideal platform for building pure HTTP based services where the request and response
happens with HTTP protocol. The client can make a GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE request and get the
WebAPI response appropriately.
In summary, the WebAPI is
An HTTP Service
Designed for broad reach
Uses HTTP as an Application protocol, not a transport protocol
Some more interesting articles on WebAPI
1. ASP.NET WebAPI Hosting Techniques
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/555923/ASP-NET-WebAPI-Hosting-Techniques
2. Implementing Custom DelegatingHandler in ASP.NET WebAPI
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/557232/Implementing-Custom-DelegatingHandler-in-ASP-
NET-W
3. Implementing Custom Media Formatters in ASP.NET WebAPI
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/559378/Implementing-Custom-Media-Formatters-in-ASP-
NET-We
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We shall see below the Web API architecture when you are hosting WebAPI in ASP.NET and self-hosting
through console or Windows service.

Routing configuration in WebAPI is slightly different from ASP.NET MVC Routing. The WebAPI uses
HttpRouteCollection and Route. The WebAPI team has reused the routing logic of MVC in WebAPI.
The only reason why its a different routing is in order to keep the WebAPI from having its dependency on
ASP.NET Routing. The team decided to make it independent so that WebAPI will not have ASP.NET class
dependencies and it can be hosted in console or a Windows service as self-hosting.
While in ASP.NET WebAPI routing, the system will not only register the HttpRoute object but also it will
create a wrapper Route object and in the ASP.NET routing engine.
The significant difference that you can see here is you will not have access to Routing data in message
handlers when you are trying to access the same in self-hosting, the reason is the route configuration is
set and it will run at a later point in the life cycle.
The other significant difference between the ApiController and the normal MVC controller is with
WebAPI ApiController, the actions are dispatched by default based on the HTTP request. However
there is a flexibility to override it so that the WebAPI will use the action name to select the action method
within the ApiController.
What is Content Negotiation in Web API
This is something which you will here frequently in WebAPI. Content negotiation is the process of selecting
the best representation for a given response when there are multiple representations available. The
underling Web API framework implements the content negotiation and that is the reason why and how
the client can request data with a specific media type.
By default the Web API returns data in JSON format, however while requesting for a resource we can
specify the media type to return so that the WebAPI knows what you are requesting for and select
the proper formatter to output the data.
How to Implement Web API?
We shall see a generic implementation of Web API.
We have to create a class which derives from ApiController. The methods defined in the WebAPI
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controller map to the HTTP methods. If you have a method name prefixed with GET, it means you are
trying to return some data based upon the GET request. You just have to make sure that whatever actions
you are implementing must be prefixed with the right request type (GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE).
Note: The method name need not be Get () or Post () etc. However it does not limit to prefixing the
request types. You can still implement the actions with different naming but you have to make sure to use
the suitable action filters [HttpGet] , [Post] , [Put], [Delete].
Routing in ASP.NET Web API?
To determine which action to invoke, the framework uses a routing table. Below is the default route which
is configured as a part of Global.asax.
The routing is quite similar to what we define for MVC controllers:
Collapse | Copy Code
routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "Default",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);
The Web API framework receives an HTTP request, it tries to match the URI against one of the route
templates in the routing table. If no route matches, the client receives a 404 error.
Action Parameters in WebAPI simple types are taken from URI - Route data, query parameters. Complex
types come from the body - Configured MediaTypeFormatters are used to desterilize the request body
based on the content type - JSON, XML and form-URL-encoded are supported out of the box, also we can
override using [FormUrl], [FormBody], [ModelBinder], custom parameter binding.
How to host a Web API ?
You can go with self or web hosting.
Self-hosting in any Windows process (e.g., console application or Windows service)
Web hosting - using the ASP.NET pipeline on top of Internet Information Services (IIS). You have to
make a reference and use the below ones if you are going with self-hosting.
Here is the code snippet for self-hosting Web API.
using System.Web.Http;
using System.Web.Http.SelfHost;

var config = new HttpSelfHostConfiguration("http://localhost:8080");

config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
"API Default", "api/{controller}/{id}",
new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });

using (HttpSelfHostServer server = new HttpSelfHostServer(config))
{
server.OpenAsync().Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to quit.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
In the above hosting, the application listens to the specified URL localhost 8080. You need administrator
privileges for that. If you are facing any issues like HTTP could not register URL then you will have to run
the below statement in the command prompt as Administrator:
netsh http add urlacl url=http://+:8080/ user=machine\username
How to manually run the content negotiation and why its required?
We have seen above the content negotiation is something which is built inside the WebAPI which will
make use of formatters to decode and encode the HttpRequest and HttpResponses.
So the question comes, when exactly we need to manually run the content negotiation logic. Heres one
that we can think of, say you are consuming a third party service which always returns data in JSON
format. Your client is accepting or willing to process XML based responses or maybe you have other clients
consuming data in different formats like JSON or XML. In such scenarios you can think of building a
WebAPI as a wrapper around the services that you are consuming. Isnt it meaningful to build something
and return data based on the media type?
Below is the generic code which runs the content negotiation
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// Get the IContentNegotiator
IContentNegotiator negotiator = Configuration.Services.GetContentNegotiator();

// Run content negotiation to select a formatter
MediaTypeHeaderValue mediaType;
MediaTypeFormatter formatter = negotiator.Negotiate(
typeof(Contact), Request, Configuration.Formatters, out mediaType);

// Create a response message with an object content using the selected formatter
HttpResponseMessage response = new HttpResponseMessage()
{
Content = new ObjectContent<contact>(contact, formatter),
RequestMessage = Request
};
Get the content negotiator instance and run the Negotiate method with the following parameters, the
type of object you want to return, request object, the default formatters, and out param for the media
type. At last create a HttpResponseMessage and format the content as per the media formatter which is
obtained while doing content negotiation.
Background
This article is just a start off, a beginner article for WebAPI. A basic understanding of MVC is sufficient to
understand and implement ASP.NET WebAPI.
Using the code
We shall create a very basic sample WebAPI project and host it in console and make a request
from browser. I am referring to the example mentioned in http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/hosting-
aspnet-web-api/self-host-a-web-api
1. First create a console project
2. From NuGet manager, search for Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.SelfHost and install it
3. Create a controller and make sure it inherits from ApiController.
4. Implement the required actions based on the HTTP verbs
5. Now we are ready for hosting.
a. In program.cs, create an instance of HttpSelfHostConfiguration by specifying the URL
to listen, then set the default route map.
b. Create an instance of HttpSelfHostServer with the above configuration and open the
connection and wait for the client requests.
6. Requesting for Products:, just copy paste or type in the URL http://localhost:8080/Products in the
browser and hit Enter. That's all you should do to be able to see the response.
When you are requesting for Products with the URL http://localhost:8080/Products, the
GetAllProducts method of ApiController will serve the request. Similarly if you wish to get product
by ID, you will have to pass the ID while making a request to the WebAPI controller. Here is an example
http://localhost:8080/Products/1, upon requesting, the GetProductsById method will be invoked and it
will return a single product based on the product ID.
public class ProductsController : ApiController
{
Product[] products = new Product[]
{
new Product { Id = 1, Name = "Tomato Soup", Category = "Groceries", Price = 1 },
new Product { Id = 2, Name = "Yo-yo", Category = "Toys", Price = 3.75M },
new Product { Id = 3, Name = "Hammer", Category = "Hardware", Price = 16.99M }
};
public IEnumerable<product> GetAllProducts()
{
return products;
}
public Product GetProductById(int id)
{
var product = products.FirstOrDefault((p) => p.Id == id);
if (product == null)
{
throw new HttpResponseException(HttpStatusCode.NotFound);
}
return product;
}
public IEnumerable<product> GetProductsByCategory(string category)
{
return products.Where(p => string.Equals(p.Category, category,
StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
}
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var config = new HttpSelfHostConfiguration("http://localhost:8080");
config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
"API Default", "api/{controller}/{id}",
new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });
using (HttpSelfHostServer server = new HttpSelfHostServer(config))
{
server.OpenAsync().Wait();
Console.WriteLine("Press Enter to quit.");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
Now we will see another sample implementation of WebAPI handling GET, PUT, POST, DELETE requests.
For demonstration purpose, I have created a WebAPI based Contact Manager application.
Use case:
1. Ability to manage contacts. The user should be able to add/update/delete contacts.
2. Display all contacts in the Home page.
Below is the Contacts Controller implementation. We are encapsulating all the CRUD operations in a
repository named ContactRepository.
public class ContactsController : ApiController
{
private static readonly IContactRepository _contacts = new ContactRepository();
// Get All Contacts
public IEnumerable<contact> Get()
{
return _contacts.GetAllContacts();
}
// Get Contact by Id
public Contact Get(int id)
{
try
{
Contact contact = _contacts.GetContact(id);
return contact;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw new
HttpResponseException(Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, ex.Message));
}
}

// Insert Contact
public HttpResponseMessage Post(Contact value)
{
try
{
if (ModelState.IsValid)
{
Contact contact = _contacts.AddContact(value);
var response = Request.CreateResponse<contact>(HttpStatusCode.Created,
contact);
return response;
}
else
{
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, "Model
state is invalid");
}
}
{
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, ex.Message);
}
}

// Update Contact by Id
public HttpResponseMessage Put(int id, Contact value)
{
try
{
_contacts.UpdateContact(id, value);
}
{
}
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}
// Delete Contact by Id
public HttpResponseMessage Delete(int id)
{
try
{
_contacts.RemoveContact(id);
}
{
}
return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}
}
Below is the code for the Contact Repository.
It is built on Entity Framework Code First Approch. The Repository is composed of ContactsDbContext,
with its help we are performing CRUD operations.
public class ContactRepository : IContactRepository
{
private ContactsDbContext context;
public ContactRepository()
{
context = new ContactsDbContext();
}
public IEnumerable<contact> GetAllContacts()
{
try
{
return context.Contacts.ToList();
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}

public Contact GetContact(int id)
{
try
{
return context.Contacts.SingleOrDefault(c => c.Id == id);
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}
public Contact AddContact(Contact item)
{
try
{
context.Contacts.Add(item);
context.SaveChanges();
return item;
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}

public bool RemoveContact(int id)
{
try
{
var contact = context.Contacts.SingleOrDefault(c => c.Id == id);
if (contact == null)
throw new Exception(string.Format("Contact with id: '{0}' not found",
id.ToString()));

context.Contacts.Remove(contact);
return true;
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}
public bool UpdateContact(int id, Contact item)
{
try
{
var contact = context.Contacts.SingleOrDefault(c => c.Id == id);

if( contact == null)
throw new Exception(string.Format("Contact with id: '{0}' not found",
id.ToString()));
contact.Name = item.Name;
contact.Email = item.Email;
contact.Phone = item.Phone;
context.Entry(contact).State = EntityState.Modified;
return true;
}
catch
{
throw;
}
}
}

public class ContactsDbContext : DbContext
{
public ContactsDbContext()
: base("name=ContactsDbContext")
{
}
public DbSet<contact> Contacts { get; set; }
}
Setting Up the Database for Managing Contacts
Open solution - WebAPI - ManageContacts in Visual Studio and follow the below steps:
1. (Optional step) Open web.config and make changes to the connection string
"ContactsDbContext" if required.
2. Go to Tools -> Library Package Manager -> Package Manager Console
Run Update-Database command as shown below. You should be able to see the command run
successfully without throwing any errors.
PM> Update-Database
Specify the '-Verbose' flag to view the SQL statements being applied to the target
database.
No pending code-based migrations.
Applying automatic migration: 201302171855006_AutomaticMigration.
Running Seed method.
Rendering contacts (MVC + Web Api Controller)
Here is a code snippet for HTTP GET verb. We are making an AJAX request to get all the contacts. The
request will hit the Home controller and it will execute the "ContactsGrid" action. Within the action, we are
creating an instance of the WebAPI controller, get all the contacts, and then return a partial view -
ContactsGrid.
function GetContacts() {
$.ajax({
url: '/Home/ContactsGrid',
type: "GET",
success: function (response) {
$("#contactsGrid").html(response);
},
error: function (data) {
$("#contactsGrid").html(data.responseText);
}
});
}
Add contacts with WebAPI
Below is the code snippet for adding a new contact. Here we are making a jQuery request with the URL to
the WebAPI controller, passing the contact information by serializing the data as a JSON object in the
HTTP Request body. The content negotiation within the WebAPI will understand and decode the contact
information.
Note - Set the proper content type while making a request. Below you can see the content type set to
'application/json'.
function AddContact() {
var contact = {
Name: $('#Name').val(),
Email: $('#Email').val(),
Phone: $('#Phone').val()
};
$.ajax({
url: '/Api/Contacts',
type: 'POST',
data: JSON.stringify(contact),
contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
success: function (data) {
alert('Contacts added successfully');
GetContacts();
},
alert('Problem in adding contacts:' + data.responseText);
}
});
}
Deleting contacts with WebAPI
Below is the code snippet for deleting contacts. We make a jQuery request with the URL to the WebAPI
controller. You will also notice that by setting the request type to 'DELETE', it helps to execute the Delete
method in the Contacts WebAPI Controller.
function DeleteContact(id) {
$.ajax({
url: '/Api/Contacts/'+ id,
type: 'DELETE',
GetContacts();
},
alert('Problem in deleting contacts:' + data.responseText);
}
});
}
Update contacts with Web API
Below is the code snippet for updating the contacts. We are using the jQuery model dialog. We will get the
contact to update and then show up a dialog so that we can edit the contact. When we click on the
Update button, we will make an AJAX request with the URL to the WebAPI controller.
You can also notice the request type is 'PUT' and we are also serializing the contacts before making the
request. If the update operation succeeds, we will call the GetContacts() method so that it will update
the contacts grid.
function EditContact(id) {
$.ajax({
url: '/Home/GetContactsById/' + id,
type: "GET",
success: function (response) {
$("#editContact").html(response);
},
$("#editContact").html(data.responseText);
}
});
$(dialog).dialog('open')
}
dialog = $("#editContact").dialog({
autoOpen: false,
resizable: false,
closeOnEscape: true,
show: "explode",
hide: "explode",
width: 300,
title: "Edit Contact",
buttons: {
Update: function () {
Ranjan.D
Web Developer
United States
Profile

Around 8 years of professional software development experience in analysis, design, development,
testing and implementation of enterprise web applications for healthcare domain with good
exposure to object-oriented design, software architectures, design patterns, test-driven
development and agile practices.
var contact = {
Name: $('#Name').val(),
Email: $('#Email').val(),
Phone: $('#Phone').val()
};

$.ajax({
url: '/Api/Contacts/' + $('#Id').val(),
type: 'PUT',
data: JSON.stringify(contact),
contentType: "application/json;charset=utf-8",
GetContacts();
},
alert('Problem in updating contacts:' + data.responseText);
}
});
$(dialog).dialog("close");
},
Cancel: function () {
$(dialog).dialog("close");
}
}
});
Web.config changes
In order to execute HTTP requests for DELETE, PUT, etc., we need to add the below mentioned line under
<system.webserver> so that the application handles all types of requests.
<modules runallmanagedmodulesforallrequests="true">
Points of Interest
It was fun in learning and writing an article on WebAPI. I hope this article will be helpful for enthusiastic
peoples who are eager to learn and implement some interesting stuffs in new technology. This
article won't be completed if I don't thank all peoples who helped me in understanding WebAPI (to some
extent).
Please feel free to comment your opinion about this article, code, or whatever you feel like telling me.
Also if you like this article, don't forget to vote me.
History
Version 1.0 - 2/18/2013 - Initial version with two sample applications.
License
This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open
License (CPOL)
About the Author

In Brief

Analyse and create High Level , Detailed Design documents.
Use UML Modelling and create Use Cases , Class Diagram , Component Model , Deployment
Diagram, Sequence Diagram in HLD.

Area of Working : Dedicated to Microsoft .NET Technologies
Experience with : C# , J2EE , J2ME, Windows Phone 8, Windows Store App
Proficient in: C# , XML , XHTML, XML, HTML5, Javascript, Jquery, CSS, SQL, LINQ

Software Development

Database: Microsoft SQL Server, FoxPro
Development Frameworks: Microsoft .NET 1.1, 2.0, 3.5, 4.5
UI: Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation, ASP.NET Web Forms and ASP.NET MVC3,
MVC4
Coding: WinForm , Web Development, Windows Phone, WinRT Programming

Healthcare Domain Experience

CCD, CCR, QRDA, HIE, HL7 V3, Healthcare Interoperability

Others:

TTD, BDD

Education

B.E (Computer Science)

CodeProject Contest So Far:

1. Windows Azure Developer Contest - HealthReunion - A Windows Azure based healthcare
product , link - http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/582535/HealthReunion-A-Windows-Azure-
based-healthcare-pro

2. DnB Developer Contest - DNB Business Lookup and Analytics , link -
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/618344/DNB-Business-Lookup-and-Analytics

3. Intel Ultrabook Contest - Journey from development, code signing to publishing my App to
Intel AppUp , link - http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/517482/Journey-from-development-
code-signing-to-publishin

4. Intel App Innovation Contest 2013 - eHealthCare -
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/635815/eHealthCare
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