I'm working on an application that requires me to host a WCF REST Web App using Windows Service. Now since it is going to be a bit more complicated than just a small API, I would like leverage MVC capabilities as a lot of things would be lot easier if done using the 'Controller' way (if I can say so). I'm don't have deep knowledge of MVC and Windows Service.
So far, I've found only two links here & here, that are somewhat related to what I want, but still not there. Could anyone please point me to a working example or create a small demo? TIA.
Based on your comments, it is clear that you are wanting to run REST-based web-services, self-hosted, on both Linux and Windows.
The recommended way to do this is to use the new ASP.NET Core platform, running on .NET Core.
Microsoft provide a good tutorial here:
https://docs.asp.net/en/latest/tutorials/first-web-api.html
Another link just received from a quick google search Here but yes need some more clarity on how you plan to run it or what its for.
We used Nugent package manager years ago for self-hosting a web API
Related
In short, i am looking for the best mehod to provide a REST or SOAP API Server in a .Net Framework application (e.g. windows forms) - without admin rights in some cases
What is currently the best way of providing a web based REST or SOAP API in a possible portable csharp application?
Basically i need something that supports the basic http standards out of the box (e.g. Expect: 100-continue and others) and at the same time is able to instanciate the classes of my csharp program directly (perfomrance and ease of use reasons).
The microsoft way is to either use IIS and possibly ASP or go for httplistener. IIS could never be run in a portable way and requires lots of installation procedure/system administration based work. httlistener on the other hand is not even close to being a webserver, i would need to implement all the standard webserver commands on my own.
I am looking around for this topic since years now, one example is this question [old question] Alternative to HttpListener?
Unfortunately this one links to a discontinued project.
Any ideas?
[EDIT] The question targets not only C# but also .NET Framework 2-4.5. The result should be useable in e.g. Windows Form, Windows Service and Commandline applications.
Currently i am using a skeleton Webserver based on HTTPListener and therefore i need to implement all the Parsing of a request, formatting of answers and reacting to special http commands on my own (which seems to be a never ending task): https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/17071/Sample-HTTP-Server-Skeleton-in-C
You could try Griffin web server. I've used it for embedding a web server into applications to host a simple web interface, file hosting, and to provide a REST API for my application.
The biggest advantage for me versus the embedio project (which is excellent) is that it doesn't require admin privileges to run. Looks like no SOAP integration out of the box though.
You should be able to do what you want using .NET Core. You can fairly easily build a self-hosted API using it that's independent of IIS. Tutorials should be easy to find, and here is a Microsoft example.
As ilikesleeping suggested you could use dotnet core, but there are complications in making it work as a service.
I suggest you to use Microsoft OWIN framework. It's really simple and straightforward way of building restful applications. It can work fine as Console or a service, and of course in Console mkode you can display a Form should you wish to.
Here are some links to get kickstarted:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/web-api/overview/hosting-aspnet-web-api/use-owin-to-self-host-web-api | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/aspnet/overview/owin-and-katana/getting-started-with-owin-and-katana | https://blog.decayingcode.com/post/Creating-a-Self-Hosted-OWIN-Application/ |
https://weblogs.asp.net/fredriknormen/creating-a-simple-rest-like-service-with-owin-open-web-server-interface
EDIT:
...and here's the topic on how to have a middleware that hosts SOAP endpoint over OWIN: Any way to get OWIN to host a SOAP service?
I am the author of this question. Just wanted to make obvious for future readers what i learned here:
Most interesting about this question is that it is a "shopping" question. The accepted answer cannot be based on facts but on subjective feeling only. Most of the suggested methods hit the described usecase.
This is the reason why some users did not want to write an answer but instead put their suggestions in a comment instead. Strange but this is how SO works. We just prefer scientifically correct answers here!
By te way, this was my first "bounty" question. I am active SO user since about 3 weeks. (passive for years, like most people)
I got project that will run on windows and web. I wonder if there is a solution to create that as a cross platform application . If you have any experience or any solution please let me know.
Create web service(s) for your business.
Consume them in both windows application and web application.
Configuring is the key here.
When it comes to consuming web services,may be little challenging for authentications, authorizations and marshalling data, but it is possible.
You can choose any programming language for creating web services. But languages like Java, C# or vb.net has good supporting libraries and easy to do. Any how your question tag says C#, dotnet frame work has good support for webservices using WCF.
You can share a lot of UI code between a desktop and web application using a framework like Electron. This is the method that a lot of popular products with both web and desktop apps (like Slack, Discord, and Ghost to name a few) use.
(First i just want to say i'm sorry if its not worded the best but i have been researching for hours and i thought maybe someone on here could clear this up for me)
Im new to creating web apis and i have been googling just doing some research and i have built a few MVC applications just to get exposed but i never really thought of making an API for it until today. One of the reasons its listed to be useful is it allows your application to be used across tablets and smart phones etc. What im not understanding is how you would do this as in would you just add something to the API so it makes it compatible for all browsers or if i need to re build it using Web API instead of MVC.
Thanks,
I think your looking at a Web API from the wrong perspective. It's not really about compatibility necessarily, but rather about the ability to reuse the code/back-end functionality.
So rather than having your dependencies all wrapped up in one MVC project, the references are external. This allows for essentially the same functionality across multiple projects as long as the request are being handled in the same manner.
I'm currently studying how to deploy and run a full pledged ASP.Net MVC 4 site on Mono. Now, please don't get me wrong, I'm doing my best to do research on how to implement this. My first option was OAuth, but after some research, it seems that I might have some issues running it with MySQL.
So perhaps, I'm stuck with Simple forms authentication? I've seen some samples done in 2012 online which simply reuse the old authentication from MVC 3 and replace the one generated my MVC 4 projects.
I need your advice to which step to take best.
Cheers!
Does anyone have experience using ASP.NET MVC project as a Web Service?
i.e. using ASP.NET MVC without Views, so other applications can use the URL to GET or POST to the actions in the Controller.
Has anyone used it? If so, are there any drawbacks for not using Web Service project instead?
Thank you all in advance!
It really depends on the kind of application you're writing. I would actually argue the inverse of LukLed's position - SOAP-based services are better suited for internal clients when you want to support things like Windows Authentication, or different protocols like TCP or MSMQ.
Using a more web-style of GETs and POSTs around specific "resources" starts to get you into the REST architectural style. This technique has a few distinct advantages to me:
The response is usually smaller, particularly when using lightweight formats like JSON
Because of the simplicity of the requests and responses, this makes it much easier to use in mobile / native applications (see Twitter's API, for example)
The service you create can be self-describing and discoverable, because you can link to other parts of your API just like normal web pages.
One article that particularly helped me understand the tradeoffs here is Martin Fowler's "Steps Toward the Glory of REST." That being said, it may or may not be the right fit for your application.
If you do choose to build a more REST-based service, definitely consider using the ASP.NET Web API built into MVC4 as others have mentioned. It's currently in beta, but Microsoft felt good enough about it to give it a go-live license.
UPDATE:
Since ASP.NET core, ASP.NET web API has been integrated into MVC 6 project.
https://wildermuth.com/2016/05/10/Writing-API-Controllers-in-ASP-NET-MVC-6
If you want to use simple GET and POST calls, MVC will be good choice. ASP.NET MVC 4 will have support for creating HTTP based APIs. You can read about it here: http://www.asp.net/web-api
Web Service created in Web Service project can be easier to consume, because it can generate WSDL file, that can be easily read and used in many different languages (by using SOAP protocol). On the other side, WS can create huge XML responses, that could be many times smaller, if you used your own format.
If you want to spread your web service around the world, allowing SOAP will make life easier for many developers. SOAP can be used by people, who almost have no idea about programming. If you'll use it internally, prefer speed and simple requests and responses, you can use MVC.
New ASP.NET MVC includes Web Api Kit, which can do exactly what you want. With current version you can still use it. There are no real drawbacks to it