Three Part Series
(Part 1)
REST can be a very loaded term that brings up lots of discussions of what it means. Just to mention a few sites that define it take a look at this list:
- http://kellabyte.com/2011/09/04/clarifying-rest/
- http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven
- http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3821663/querystring-in-rest-resource-url
What is abundantly clear is there is not one clear concise explanation. That said, I’m going to try and explain how to implement a Microsoft WebAPI REST controller that is written with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012.
First, you need to create the WebAPI controller. I created a separate directory called “api” in my VS project for this purpose. The dialog comes up as follows: (I chose “API controller with empty read/write actions” and renamed it to be TagsRest Controller. My default url will now be http://mywebsite.com/api/TagsRest.
By default, the following controller class is made for me.
Surprising, I’m going to end the post here because we are really done. There are empty methods, which is OK because I did not mean to define an implementation with this post, just show how to create a WebAPI REST controller which I’ve done.
In the next post, I’ll show how to create a simple Sencha ExtJS application that consumes this REST service.
Peter is a software professional specializing in mobile and web technologies. He has also been a Microsoft MVP for the past 7 years. To read more about Peter Kellner and his experience click here. For information about how Peter Kellner might be able to help you with your project click here.
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[...] *For those who are intersted in this, I just posted a 3 part series on using ExtJS 4.2 with Microsoft’s new WebAPI Restful Interface. The new WebAPI is more efficient on the server side and the coding to REST makes the ExtJS side simpler. (March 13, 2013) Part 1 [...]