ASP.NET Web API: Build RESTful web applications and services on the .NET framework

The ASP.NET Web API was designed from the ground up to meet the need of developers who want to build HTTP/RESTful services. ASP.NET Web API is an HTTP service that uses HTTP as the application protocol and can return data based on the data format requested by the client. It is a lightweight web-based architecture that provides an easy-to-use set of default options while providing a deep extensibility infrastructure to meet the demands of any scenario using HTTP. This book is a step-by-step, practical tutorial with a simple approach to help you build RESTful web applications and Web API services based on the .NET framework quickly and efficiently. This book provides complete coverage of RESTful services and the ASP.NET Web API in a lucid language with plenty of hands-on code examples. The book starts with a description of REST-based architecture and WCF. It then explores the new features in ASP.NET 4.5 and introduces you to the new concepts in the ASP.NET Web API. There are also plentiful code examples throughout these sections to help you learn effectively. You will then learn how to work with WCF REST-based services and the ASP.NET Web API and how to consume those services using various clients such as ASP.NET, ASP.NET MVC, WPF, and Silverlight. In the second half of this book, we discuss the more advanced concepts of the ASP.NET Web API, best practices, and asynchronous programming concepts and how it can be implemented in C# 5.The most important thing you will take home from reading this book is a working knowledge on RESTful services, their architecture, how to build them, and also how to consume them with plenty of tips and techniques to better utilize this technology.