ASP.NET Web API is a light-weight, web-based architecture that you can use to build web services that use HTTP as the protocol. This book is a clear and concise guide to the ASP.NET Web API Framework, with plenty code examples. It explores ways to consume Web API services using ASP.NET 4.5, ASP.NET MVC 4, WPF, and Silverlight clients.
Chapter 1, Understanding Representational State Transfer Services, provides an introduction to the concept of REST and its related terminologies.
Chapter 2, Understanding Resource and Service Oriented Architectures, explores Resource Oriented Architectures and discusses the differences between ROA and SOA.
Chapter 3, Working with Restful Services, discusses the basics of implementing RESTful services in .NET and the necessary tips and techniques.
Chapter 4, Consuming Restful Services, discusses how RESTful services can be consumed. It also discusses the guidelines and best practices involved.
Chapter 5, Working with ASP.NET 4.5, discusses how we can work with ASP.NET 4.5 and the Web API.
Chapter 6, Working with Restful Data Using Silverlight, discusses how we can work with RESTful services with Silverlight client.
Chapter 7, Advanced Features, discusses some advanced concepts in the Web API and the best practices to be followed when using WCF and ASP.NET Web API.
Appendix, Library References, discusses the popular REST-based Service Frameworks and APIs, how we can get started using Visual Studio 2013 IDE, and contains a reference to the Web API class library.