Web API Introduction

What is Web API ?

A Web API is an application programming interface for either a web server or a web browser. It is a web development concept, usually limited to a web application's client-side (including any web frameworks being used), and thus usually does not include web server or browser implementation details such as SAPIs or APIs unless publicly accessible by a remote web application.

ASP.NET Web API

The ASP.NET Web API is an extensible framework for building HTTP based services that can be accessed in different applications on different platforms such as web, windows, mobile etc. It works more or less the same way as ASP.NET MVC web application except that it sends data as a response instead of html view. It is like a webservice or WCF service but the exception is that it only supports HTTP protocol.

Web API

ASP.NET Web API Characteristics

1. ASP.NET Web API is an ideal platform for building RESTful services.
2. ASP.NET Web API is built on top of ASP.NET and supports ASP.NET request/response pipeline
3. ASP.NET Web API maps HTTP verbs to method names.
4. ASP.NET Web API supports different formats of response data. Built-in support for JSON, XML, BSON format.
5. ASP.NET Web API can be hosted in IIS, Self-hosted or other web server that supports .NET 4.0+.
6. ASP.NET Web API framework 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.

Endpoints of Web API

Web api endpoint is the Unique URL to call a specific method or function.

Tools for testing and monitoring web api

1. Postman
2. Swagger
3. Fiddler
4. Soap UI