I have written a MVC web application that is used on our corporate intranet. We also have an MVC web site that is a seperate web application that is used by our customers. For our website to talk to our intranet systems database I have written a c# web service to access it.
The problem I have now is in the intranet application I have a complex routine that does some calculations that I now need in the web service for the website to do the same thing. I do not want to copy the logic and have it repeated in 2 locations for obvious reasons, so I need the web service and web application to share the same code base. I know this is possible but what is the best was to go about the use of application variables stored in web config files. For example if I move the code out of the intranet app and into a class library I will loose the functionality of being able to access the webconfig file, so where do I put these variables?
Any Suggestions on the best way to do this?
I will loose the functionality of being able to access the webconfig
file, so where do I put these variables?
You won't loose that ability. Every part of your application can access the configuration file, for instance by using the ConfigurationManager.AppSettings property.
Put the shared code in a class library that is referenced from both the web site and the web service.
Related
I'm mostly back end developer and want to start small side project.
I want to do razor pages web app and as a part of it I would like to have web api that can be consumed outside of the app and if I want, use it to build other front end with it.
What would be good project structure? I don't want to have it deployed as 2 apps. One for razor, second for web API. I would like to have it as a one deployed app.
Is this good approach?
Thanks
I tried separate razor pages app and separate web api. Deployed as two pages.
Since you're building a Web API project anyway, you should consider making a frontend application with a framework like Vue that interacts with the API, instead of a Razor project. Having both a Razor project and a Web API project would be redundant as both of them would have to incorporate most of the same backend code.
It better separates the role of the frontend and backend applications, and Microsoft's documentation suggests using this project structure too.
You'd have to deploy two separate apps, but this would be a more suitable approach.
If you still want to deploy one application only, you could just incorporate Web API services in your Razor app, but this really isn't recommended.
On the ASP.NET server (production), I am told to use the web service that is written by some other person.
Question is how do I find out what webservices were deployed on the production server. All I am told is to make a call using "CheckFile" (which I believe is a part of the web service). I went to the Inetpub folder to see if there is any folder that has these webservices but there is none?
Sorry I am doing this first time and hence many questions,
My end goal is to use these webservices in my ASP.NET application and call those functions such as "CheckFile" and others from this webservice.
Thanks.
I agree ask your co-worker if you have one.Else if you have access to old asp.net app then right clik on project and click on service reference tab it will show web services in that .net app.
I am trying to architect a system that will have a website and an iphone app that will be driven off the same data. I understand how I would create and architect the website, but when it comes to adding the iphone app I am unsure on how it will apply.
My considerations for design:
-Using C#, SQL Server, asp.net for the website (would try to get most of my data using web services where I could)
-Using Objective-C, x-code, etc for the iphone app development
1.) Will I need to expose a web service for the iphone to interact with? If so, would that be considered a seperate web app from the actual website? Or would the webservice be built in with the website and then the iphone would interact with that web service as well?
2.) What do I need to consider, security wise, when it comes to exposing a web service?
3.) Any other architecture advice for building a system such as this? Maybe personal experiences with doing a website/iphone app that runs off the same database.
Yes you will need to expose a webservice for the application to bind/talk to. I would suggest that the service be run as a separate site (such as data.yourdomain.com, where as the site would run on yourdomain.com) which the website also uses for it's data. That way you share the same architecture for both your "end points" (site and app).
Ensuring that you webservice takes a authentication token (username/password or oauth/etc) with each call will help to prevent any unauthorised calls to the service/database. Also ensuing that your service is exposed via a valid HTTPS connection (and only https) will prevent sniffing of the data to get passwords.
As I said in point 1, build the service in such a way that it does not matter what "end point" is accessing it. That way should you add an android app or windows phone app (or even a second website) you will not need to make a fresh service. Perhaps tie each applications "account" to a "end point type" (such as Android/iPhone/WinPhone/WebSite) that will allow you to customise the data objects that you return if needed.
Will I need to expose a web service for the iphone to interact with?
If so, would that be considered a seperate web app from the actual
website? Or would the webservice be built in with the website and then
the iphone would interact with that web service as well?
It depends, if you want a native application, then you would expose the service, else you can develop an iPhone web app
What do I need to consider, security wise, when it comes to exposing a
web service?
Normal security consideration as if you would develop a web service to a windows desktop application
Any other architecture advice for building a system such as this?
Maybe personal experiences with doing a website/iphone app that runs
off the same database.
Try to make the web service as clear and light as you can
At first use use just one data source for all your projects. Expose the database with webservices. User authentication to invoke webservice procedures for security.
I'm migrating an old Delphi application that I wrote into C#. The application is a datalogger that exposes logged data requests via a SOAP web service interface.
The web service is contained with the delphi graphical windows application, i.e. no need to run a web server like IIS, etc I just run the application and it's up and running under the hood.
I'm looking to do the same in my c# Windows form application, I can find loads of resources on writing web services that are ultimately hosted within IIS but am struggling to find a solution for a self contained web service within my application.
Does anyone have any suggestions or can point me towards any resources on this?
The web service does not neceserily have to be SOAP, REST is fine (in fact probably prefered).
Look into WCF Services.
Hosting and Consuming WCF Services
Hosting WCF services in a Windows Forms Application
The System.Web.Hosting namespace allows you to host ASP.Net pages without using IIS within your applications. I have never used it to host web services but I found a tutorial that seems to provide a guide on doing this-
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc163879.aspx
If you're wanting to host a service inside your application, it's possible with the System.ServiceModel.ServiceHost class. You need to learn WCF first, but that at least answers your question to get you started. If you have any further questions, leave me a comment or two and I'll update my answer to accommodate your inquiries.
I have an asp.net mvc application and now I need to add a web service to go along with it. What is the best solution for this? Just create a new web service project and add it to my solution then deploy it to the same web server using a different url? I would like it to be a part of the mvc application only because I have all my database code in there.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.
There's no reason not to add a web service project.
You state that all your database code is in your MVC project. I strongly recommend you remove it from there into a separate class library project. This third project would be used both by the web service and by the MVC application.
I also strongly recommend that you not use ASMX web services for any new development.
Use WCF only, unless you have no choice at all. There's a misconception that WCF services don't do SOAP - they do, and WCF has replaced ASMX.
Web service could mean a soap based web service or a RESTful web service. I can't think of any reason why you would not be able to simply add an asmx file to your project and be in business. That is the soap based route. If you want to be really cool though you can simple return xml from a controller action and implement a RESTful solution right over the MVC framework.
If you want to use a regular ASP.NET asmx web service, it's certainly possible. Here's an example from Scott Hanselman that does just what you are asking about and it throws in some other ASP.NET technologies for good measure.
All you have to do is File -> New Item -> Web Service and it should work like a regular ASP.NET application in your Mvc project.
i think there's a couple of things here.
you can indeed add a web service to an MVC application. you may even consider identifying the web service(s) as a script service to make REST like operations easier to perform via javascript. this may not be necessary due to your circumstances.
i think there is a stronger question as to the underlying architecture. If you are placing the web service withing your mvc application, because, your database code is already there...should it be? it might be a good time to abstract your data layer out a little. However, if you're dealing with a relatively small project and don't need the flexibilty, then certainly, add a web service right in. i guess what it really boils down to is addressing the true needs of your application.
MVC is built on the asp.net framework. You should be able to include a web service within the same project. I haven't done it but I know that you can combine asp.net forms applications with MVC applications in the same project. The same should go for web services.
Unless your application is very small I would recommend you create different projects for each logical part of the application. A good staring point is having a project for each of these:
Domain objects
Data access
Web Services
UI (your ASP.NET MVC app)
This provides a clean separation corresponding to your architecture and supports reuse.