Book Image

Mastering ASP.NET Web API

By : Mithun Pattankar
Book Image

Mastering ASP.NET Web API

By: Mithun Pattankar

Overview of this book

Microsoft has unified their main web development platforms. This unification will help develop web applications using various pieces of the ASP.NET platform that can be deployed on both Windows and LINUX. With ASP.NET Core (Web API), it will become easier than ever to build secure HTTP services that can be used from any client. Mastering ASP.NET Web API starts with the building blocks of the ASP.NET Core, then gradually moves on to implementing various HTTP routing strategies in the Web API. We then focus on the key components of building applications that employ the Web API, such as Kestrel, Middleware, Filters, Logging, Security, and Entity Framework.Readers will be introduced to take the TDD approach to write test cases along with the new Visual Studio 2017 live unit testing feature. They will also be introduced to integrate with the database using ORMs. Finally, we explore how the Web API can be consumed in a browser as well as by mobile applications by utilizing Angular 4, Ionic and ReactJS. By the end of this book, you will be able to apply best practices to develop complex Web API, consume them in frontend applications and deploy these applications to a modern hosting infrastructure.

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Mastering ASP.NET Web API
Mithun Pattankar
Aug, 2017 | 330 pages
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Table of Contents (14 chapters)
Preface
Preface
What this book covers
What you need for this book
Who this book is for
Conventions
Reader feedback
Customer support
Free Chapter
1
Introduction to Microservices and Service-Oriented Architecture
Introduction to Microservices and Service-Oriented Architecture
Services in SOA
Monolithic architecture
Introducing Microservices
Benefits of Microservices
Summary
2
Understanding HTTP and REST
Understanding HTTP and REST
Software architecture
REST principles
REST architectural elements
HTTP
Version 2 of HTTP
Binary messages
Richardson maturity model
Summary
3
Anatomy of ASP.NET Core Web API
Anatomy of ASP.NET Core Web API
A quick recap of the MVC framework
Inception of Web APIs and their evolution
Introduction to .NET Core
Introducing ASP.NET Core
Creating ASP.NET Core Project using Visual Studio IDE
Creating ASP.NET Core web applications on Linux/macOS
Creating ASP.NET Core web apps with Yeoman
ASP.NET Core request processing
Running the ASP.NET Core Web API project
Further reading
Summary
4
Controllers, Actions, and Models
Controllers, Actions, and Models
Introduction to controllers
Actions
Controllers
Summary
5
Implementing Routing
Implementing Routing
Introducing Routing
ASP.NET Core Web API and Routing
Convention-based Routing
Template-based Routing
Attribute-based Routing
Multiple Routes
Routing constraints
Link generation
Routing best practices
Summary
6
Middleware and Filters
Middleware and Filters
Introducing middleware
HTTP request pipeline and middleware
Order of middleware
Built-in middleware
Writing custom middleware
Migrating HTTP modules to middleware
Introducing filters
Summary
7
Perform Unit and Integration Testing
Perform Unit and Integration Testing
Uncle Bob's three rules of test-driven development
Summary
8
Web API Security
Web API Security
Understanding Threat Model and OWASP
Applying SSL
CORS
Data Protection API
Protecting web API
Implementing JWT
Claims-based Authorizations
Identity management in web API
Summary
9
Integration with Database
Integration with Database
Brief introduction to Object Relational Mapper
Integrating ASP.NET Core Web API and an existing database using Entity Framework 6.x
Integrating using Dapper
Integrating with EF Core
Summary
10
Error Handling, Tracing, and Logging
Error Handling, Tracing, and Logging
Basics of Logging in ASP.NET Core
MyWallet - Demo ASP.NET Core project
Logging errors to a file using NLog
Logging errors to a database using Serilog
Exception management in a MyWallet project
Summary
11
Optimization and Performance
Optimization and Performance
Measuring application performance
Asynchronous controller action methods
HTTP compression
Implementing in-memory caching
Working with distributed caching
Response caching
Summary
12
Hosting and Deployment
Hosting and Deployment
Creating a demo ASP.NET Core Web API project
Publishing ASP.NET Core Web API project
Standalone web API
Deployment strategy
Deploying web API to IIS
Deploying a web API to Azure App Service
Publishing a web API to Windows virtual machine on Azure
Publishing a web API to Docker
Publishing a web API to EC2 on AWS
Publishing a web API to Linux
Testing PacktContacts web API
Summary
13
Modern Web Frontends
Modern Web Frontends
PacktContacts - Recap of the demo web API project
Software pre-requisites for web frameworks
Consuming web APIs using Angular 4
Building hybrid mobile apps using Ionic 3
Building web apps using ReactJS
Consuming web APIs using JavaScript
Consuming web APIs using JQuery
Summary

Implementing JWT

JWT are also called JSON Web Tokens; they are industry standards for security token used in securely transmitting information between client and server as JSON objects.

They are widely used for being self-contained, small, and complete. Being small in size, they can be sent through URL, POST parameters, or inside HTTP Headers.

JSON Web tokens contain credentials, claims, and other information. To know more about JWT, I recommend reading https://jwt.io/introduction/.

One of the reasons for JWT to be so popular is that, when it is used with web API, the clients consuming them can work with ease, be they mobile app, hybrid app, web app, or any programming language based on Desktop apps or services too.

A sample JWT is an encrypted string containing information for secure communication, as shown in the following screenshot:

JSON web token sample

The workflow for...

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