Introduction to ASP.NET Web API Features and why should we use Web API?

HTTP is not just for serving up web pages. It is also a powerful platform for building APIs that expose services and data. HTTP is simple, flexible, and ubiquitous. Almost any platform that you can think of has an HTTP library.

The ASP.NET Web API shipped with ASP.NET MVC 4 and is a framework for building HTTP services. ASP.NET Web API is a framework for building web APIs on top of the .NET Framework. With the help of Web API, we can create RESTful services which can be consumed by a broad range of clients including browsers and mobile devices.

Web API Features:

·        Web API is an HTTP Service.

·        It uses HTTP as an Application protocol, not a transport protocol.

·        Web API is an ideal platform for building pure HTTP-based services where the request and response happen with HTTP protocol.

·        Web API can be hosted within the application or on IIS and with Web API 2 you can host it on Cloud.

·        It is designed for a broad range of clients including browsers and mobile devices.

·        Web API comes with MVC4 and it supports the MVC features such as routing, controllers, action results, filter, IOC or dependency injection, etc. that making it more simple and robust.

·        With WebAPI content negotiation, we can return data based on the client requests, i.e. WebAPI framework deals with the request type and returns the data appropriately based on the media type.

·        The client can make a GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE request and get the WebAPI response appropriately.

·        Web API responses have an Accept header and HTTP status code.

·        By default WebAPI provides JSON-based responses.

·        Web API uses MediaTypeFormatter to format the response into JSON, XML, or whatever format you want to add as a MediaTypeFormatter.

Why should we use Web API?

Whenever there is a new technology to work on, the first question will be why we should use it, though we can achieve the same thing with existing technology and Web API is not an exception in this case.

Let’s find out why we should use Web API:

·         Web API is open source, and open-source developers will surely love this.

·         Web API supports MVC features such as routing, filtering, controllers, etc. and one can create Web API with basic knowledge of MVC and can use MVC features with Web API.

·         Web API service based on lightweight architecture and it is good for devices that have limited bandwidth like mobiles.

·         If we want to create a web service that only runs on HTTP protocol and doesn’t use any significant protocol to run, then Web API is the best choice for you.

·         With the Web API, we can build simple, HTTP-based services on top of the existing WCF message pipeline.

·         Like the WCF service it doesn’t have annoying and extensive configuration.

·         With the help of Web API we can easily create RESTful services, though we can also create RESTful services with WCF, but service configuration is difficult.