eBook Designing Evolvable Web APIs with ASP.NET: Harnessing the Power of the Web download

If you're interested in Web API design - even if you don't plan on using ASP.NET/WebAPI - read this book! It's filled with a mountain of guidance born from real-world, hard-won experience by authors who've actually worked at the cutting edge of Web API design. Essential reading.

The book started out promising talking about evolvable concepts. It goes into building a rudimentary API from problem, concept, design, and implementation. However, the next few chapters that gets into the details of the Web API architecture had too few examples and really nothing of demonstrable value that one can try out and modify to solidify the learning. A lot of information can be gleamed from this book, but nothing that will help solidify the reader's mastery of the architecture. I tried to bind to a complex model (really a flatten data structure), but the book was not helpful in detailing how to build a model binder, when to use it, how to issue a request to test out the binder from a web client. It appears to go in depth initially, but really the authors only wallowed in the shallow failing to take opportunities to apply practical real world examples. Instead, we get elementary examples that leaves the readers looking for more answers elsewhere to fulfill their needs. I was sorely disappointed.

The book's writing style is not engaging. Granted it is a technical book, but it was not engaging like so many other books I have read over the years. In the end, this is an introductory read on the topic and there is not a whole lot of useful information a reader can get that is not already on MSDN or some other sites. I was thinking this book will allow me to build a web api by tapping deeply into the architecture and framework. I was left frustrated that it was not able to complete my knowledge on this topic. I am sure there are better books out there that can be a good primer and advance source on this technology.

Good book arrived quickly. Thanks!

Perfect Thanks!

I was hoping that this book would provide me with the information I need to build a Web API for business applications (internal). This book was very focused on customer-facing applications. Take the information on versioning for example. It's recommended practices focused on going through an agency to get a standard approved for your media type. This is not a practical approach for internal business applications.

Have had very good luck with O'Reilly books, and this is another. Well written, substantially conveys the concepts and is useable.

To low level

In a word: comprehensive! If there's any book you need to understand the details and get into the plumbing of Microsoft's Web API, this is the text you'll want. It's important to understand from the outset, however, this book is not for beginners; not even a little and I make no bones about that.

That said, experienced programmers can be utterly comfortable with the text assuming you have a basic understanding of web services and the function of the HTTP protocol. You should also understand that this book isn't as much about code as it is about designing Web APIs in ASP.NET (as the title implies). A good understanding of MVC will also help the wary developer.

The book begins with a discussion of web architecture and the HTTP protocol. It then moves to an overview of what Web APIs are all about, and how you can utilize them in your ASP.NET programs. I found these first two chapters rich in content and you might have to read it a couple of times (I know I did) to really start making things stick. Chapter 3 is when you begin to see the first sample programs that demonstrate on a simple level the idea behind Web API communications.

Chapters 4 and 5 cover everything related to architecture and application layers in Web API transaction processing: again, hardly anything here in the way of code. Chapter 6 covers media types and design, the "UI" layer of Web API design, and the ideas behind the delivery of hypermedia.

Chapters 7 through 10 contain the heaviest bits of code samples and demonstrate building out and scaling your APIs, as well as implementing the various client and hosting models. The book concludes with a look at the role of controllers and routing, formatters and model binding, client-side classes for the HTTP protocol, and finally security and messaging.

Overall, I found this to be quite a comprehensive and excellent text on the design of Web APIs, if that's what you're searching for. However, if you're looking for a text that takes you step by step through the actual creation of Web APIs (e.g., a start-to-finish tutorial) this won't be what you want and I'd suggest you look elsewhere. I did find the book a bit lacking in translating Web API functionality to ASP.NET Web Forms. For what it's intended to do, I think the book is an excellent reference and provides thorough coverage of designing Web APIs in your ASP.NET MVC apps.

* Disclosure, I received a free e-book copy of this text in exchange for a review. However, my opinions of the book are based solely upon my experiences as professional developer with more than 10 years of experience.