Working with ASP.
NET Core Web API
Objectives
Overview Client-server Architecture
Overview ASP.NET Core RESTful Services
Explain about Web Service
Explain about ASP.NET Web API Characteristics
Demo create ASP.NET Core Web API application
Demo create ASP.NET MVC Core Application consume Web API
Demo create WinForms Application consume Web API
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Client-server Architecture
Client-server architecture is a computing model in which the server hosts,
delivers and manages most ofthe resources and services to be consumed by
the client
This type of architecture has one or more client computers connected to a
central server over a network or internet connection
Client-server architecture is also known as a networking computing model or
client-server network because all the requests and services are delivered over
a network
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Client-server Architecture
1. Client requests data from server
2. Load balancer routes the request
to the appropriate server
3. Server processes the request
client
4. Server queries appropriate
database for some data
5. Database returns the queried
data back to the server
6. The server processes the data
and sends the data back to the
client
7. This process repeats
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Web Service Acronyms
Web services are services that use the HTTP communication standard,
so they are sometimes called HTTP or RESTful services
Web services can also mean Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) services
that implement some of the WS-* standards
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 and later includes a remote procedure call
(RPC) technology named Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), which
makes it easy for developers to create services including SOAP services that
implement WS-* standards
gRPC is a modern cross-platform open source RPC framework created by
Google (the "g" in gRPC)
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RESTful Services
REST stands for representational state transfer. It is an architectural style
that defines a set of guidelines for building web services
The following is a simple diagram of a REST-based service:
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ASP.NET Core and RESTful services
ASP.NET Web API from the beginning was designed to be a service-based
framework for building RESTful (REpresentational State Transfer) services
ASP.NET Web API is based on the MVC framework minus the “V” (view), with
optimizations for creating headless services. These services can be called by
any technology
Calls to a Web API service are based on the core HTTP Verbs (Get, Put, Post,
Delete) through a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)
The ASP.NET MVC framework started gaining traction almost immediately, and
Microsoft released ASP.NET Web API with ASP.NET MVC 4 and Visual Studio
2012
ASP.NET Web API 2 was released with Visual Studio 2013 and then updated
the framework to version 2.2 with Visual Studio 2013 Update 1
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ASP.NET Core and RESTful services
ASP.NET Web API is an ideal platform for building RESTful services
ASP.NET Web API is built on top of ASP.NET and supports ASP.NET
request/response pipeline
ASP.NET Web API maps HTTP verbs to method names
ASP.NET Web API supports different formats of response data. Built-in support
for JSON, XML, BSON format
ASP.NET Web API can be hosted in IIS, Kestrel, Self-hosted or other web
server that supports
ASP.NET Core Web API includes new HttpClient to communicate with Web API
server. HttpClient can be used in ASP.MVC server side, Windows Form
application, Console application or other apps
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ASP.NET Core and RESTful services
ASP.NET Web API has been built to map the web/HTTP programming model to
the .NET Framework programming model. It uses familiar constructs, such as
Controller, Action, Filter, and so on, which are used in ASP.NET MVC
ASP.NET Web API is designed on top of the ASP.NET MVC runtime, along with
some components that simplify HTTP programming
ASP.NET Core supports creating RESTful services. To handle requests, a web
API uses controllers
A Web API consists of one or more controller classes that derive
from ControllerBase
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ControllerBase Class
The ControllerBase class provides the core functionality for both ASP.NET Core
web applications and services, in addition to helper methods for returning
HTTP status codes and properties
Some of the Properties provided by the ControllerBase Class:
Properties Description
HttpContext Returns the HttpContext for the currently executing action
Request Returns the HttpRequest for the currently executing action
Response Returns the HttpResponse for the currently executing action
ModelState Returns the state of the model in regard to model binding and validation
Url Returns an instance of the IUrlHelper, providing access to building URLs for ASP.NET
MVC Core applications and services
RouteData Returns the RouteData for the currently executing action
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ControllerBase Class
Some of the Helper Methods provided by the ControllerBase Class:
Method Notes
BadRequest Returns 400 status code
NotFound Returns 404 status code
PhysicalFile Returns a file
TryUpdateModelAsync Invokes model binding
TryValidateModel Invokes model validation
NoContent Creates a NoContentResult object that produces an empty Status204NoContent response
Ok Creates a OkResult object that produces an empty Status200OK response
Accepted() Creates a AcceptedResult object that produces an Status202Accepted response
Content(String) Creates a ContentResult object by specifying a content string
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Request and Response
A REST request generally consists of the following:
HTTP verb: This denotes what kind of operation the requests want to perform on the
server
Header: This element of the REST request allows the client to pass more information
about the request
URL: The actual path to the resource that the REST request wants to operate on
Body: The body can contain extra data related to a resource to identify or update it.
This is optional though
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HTTP verbs
The following are basic HTTP verbs used while requesting a REST system for
resource interaction:
GET: Used to retrieve a specific resource by its identity or a collection of resources
POST: Used to create/insert a new resource
PUT: Used to update a specific resource by its identity
DELETE: Used to remove a specific resource by its identity
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Status Code
When a server returns responses, it includes status codes. These status
codes inform the client how the request performed on the server
Status Code Explanation
200 OK Standard response for successful HTTP requests
201 CREATED Standard response for an HTTP request when an item is successfully
NO CONTENT Standard response for successful HTTP requests, if nothing is returned in
204
the response body
Request cannot be processed because of bad request syntax, excessive size, or another
400 BAD REQUEST
client error
403 FORBIDDEN Client does not have permission to access the requested resource
404 NOT FOUND Resource could not be found at this time. It might have been deleted, or does not exist yet
500 INTERNAL This response comes whenever there is a failure or exception happens while processing
SERVER ERROR the server side codes
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A web API sample
Create Web API by dotnet CLI
Open SampleWebAPI
project by Visual Studio
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A web API sample
Update codes of the WeatherForecastController.cs as follows:
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A web API sample
Run project to test Get method by Swagger
1 2
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3
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ASP.NET Core attributes
The Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc namespace provides attributes that can be
used to configure the behavior of web API controllers and action methods
The following example uses attributes to specify the supported HTTP action
verb and any known HTTP status codes that could be returned:
[HttpPost]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status201Created)]
[ProducesResponseType(StatusCodes.Status400BadRequest)]
public ActionResult<Product> Create(Product product)
{
//………
return CreatedAtAction(nameof(GetById), new { id = product.Id },
product);
} 05/17/2025 20
ASP.NET Core attributes
Some more examples of attributes that are available:
Method Notes
HttpPostAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP POST method
HttpPutAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP PUT method
HttpDeleteAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP DELETE method
HttpGetAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP GET method
RouteAttribute Specifies an attribute route on a controller
HttpHeadAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP HEAD method
HttpOptionsAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP OPTIONS method
HttpPatchAttribute Identifies an action that supports the HTTP PATCH method
More attributes: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/microsoft.aspnetcore.mvc?view=aspnetcore-5.0
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ASP.NET Core attributes
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Binding Source Parameter Inference
A binding source attribute defines the location at which an action parameter's
value is found
The following binding source attributes exist:
Attribute Binding source
[FromBody] Inferred for complex types. Only one FromBody parameter can exist or an exception will
be thrown. Exceptions exist for IFormCollection and CancellationToken
[FromForm] Inferred for action parameters of type IFormFile and IFormFileCollection. When
parameter is marked with FromForm, the multipart/form-data content type is inferred
[FromHeader] Request header
[FromQuery] Inferred for any other action parameters
[FromRoute] Inferred for any parameter name that matches a route token name
[FromServices] The request service injected as an action parameter
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Binding Source Parameter Inference
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Demo 01- Create a Web API Application
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1. Open Visual Studio.NET , File | New | Project
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2. Fill out Project name: MyWebApp and Location then click Next
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3. Config as follows then click Create
4. Install the package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.InMemory from Nuget
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5.Right-click on Models folder | Add | Class, named Product.cs and a class named
MyStockContext.cs then write codes as follows:
Product.cs
MyStockContext.cs
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6.Right-click on Controller folder | Add |
Controller, named ProductsController.cs
7.Open Startup.cs and update code for
ConfigureService method as follows:
//add two namespaces
using MyService.Models;
using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
//…
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8.Write codes for ProductsController.cs as follows
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9.Right-click on the project, select Open in Terminal. On
Developer PowerShell dialog, execute the following
command to run Web API project:
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10.Open the web browser and go to link to test action methods with Swagger :
http://localhost:5000/swagger/index.html
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Demo 02- Create a ASP.NET MVC Core
Application to consume Web API
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1.Create a ASP.NET MVC Core application named MyWebApp
2.Right-click on Models folder | Add | Class, named Product.cs and write codes as follows:
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3.Right-click on Controllers folder | Add | Controller named ProductManagerController.cs and write
codes as follows:
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4.Right-click on View folder | Add | New Folder named ProductManager
5.Right-click on ProductManager folder | Add | View named Index (List) to display product list
then update codes as follows:
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Repeat this step to add views: Create as the below figure:
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6.Run MyService project (reference to Step 9 of Demo-01) then run MyWebApp project
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Demo 03- Create a Windows Forms
Application to consume Web API
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1.Create a Windows Forms application named MyWinApp
2. Install the package Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client from Nuget
3. Right-click on the project add a folder named Models then add into this folder a class named
Product.cs and write codes as follows:
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4. Create a form named frmViewProducts has UI as follows:
Object Type Object name Properties / Events
Label lbProductID Text: Product ID
Label lbProductName Text: Product Name
Label lbUnitPrice Text: Unit Price
TextBox txtProductID ReadOnly: True
TextBox txtProductName
TextBox txtUnitPrice
Button btnLoad Text: Delete
Event Handler: Click
DataGridView dgvProductList ReadOnly: True
SelectionMode:FullRowSelect
Form frmViewProducts StartPosition: CenterScreen
Text: View Product List
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5. Write codes in the frmViewProducts.cs as follows and run project:
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Lab and Assigment
1. Do Hands-on Lab:
Lab_03_AutomobileManagement_Using_ASP.NET MVC and EF Core.pdf
2. Do Assigment:
Assignment_03_eStoreManagement.pdf
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Summary
Concepts were introduced:
Overview Client-server Architecture
Overview ASP.NET Core and RESTful Services
Explain about Web Service
Explain about ASP.NET Web API Characteristics
Demo create ASP.NET Core Web API application
Demo create ASP.NET MVC Core Application consume Web API
Demo create WinForms Application consume Web API
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