I am currently learning how to implement a RESTful API and am using RESTful API Tutorial as a resource. I quickly needed to add functionality to my existing ASP.NET MVC site that I am building hence the need to document my steps for others who might have a need in doing this also.
I am working in Visual Studio 2013 and ASP.NET MVC 5.
Add a New Controller
This is fairly easy to do. Right click on the Controllers folder. Select “Add > Controller”. The “Add Scaffold” dialog will appear.
At this point, you can choose the Web API you would like to add. I chose “Web API 2 Controller with read/write actions” to get some samples to start working with.
Visual Studio will then add the new controller, references to System.Web.Http and System.Web.Routing and open a new readme.txt document with additional instructions. I will be documenting these instructions below.
Add Using Statements
At the beginning of the Global.asax.cs file, add the following:
using System.Web.Http; using System.Web.Routing;
Add Application_Start in the Global.asax
If you don’t already have it, add Application_Start() to your Global.asax.cs file.
protected void Application_Start()
{
}
Add GlobalConfiguration.Configure(WebApiConfig.Register) to the beginning of Application_Start(). Here is what mine looks like now:
protected void Application_Start()
{
GlobalConfiguration.Configure(WebApiConfig.Register);
AreaRegistration.RegisterAllAreas();
FilterConfig.RegisterGlobalFilters(GlobalFilters.Filters);
RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
BundleConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
BundleMobileConfig.RegisterBundles(BundleTable.Bundles);
}
And that is all you need to do. You can use RESTful Api Tutorial to learn more about RESTful API’s.
How many times have you felt like you are just re-inventing the wheel as you code? You have to look up ISO standards, ask Google questions to find your answer and sometimes you just have to create something from scratch. I felt this way when I needed to add countries, states and/or provinces to my current project.