What is ASP.Net web API ?

ASP.NET Web API is an extensible framework for developing the HTTP based services, it can be accessed by diverse platforms like web, windows, mobile, etc.

Web API Version:

In the ASP.NET MVC structure, there are various project types available and ASP.NET Web API is one of them. So, when we create a new application in ASP.NET, we need to select project type before we start working on it.

How to set up a new project:

• Open the Visual Studio and click File → New → Project menu option. A new project dialog opens.
• From the left pane, select Templates → Visual C# → Web.
• In the middle pane, select ASP.NET Web Application
• Select the “Empty” option and check the Web API checkbox in the ‘Add folders and core references for’ section and click OK.”

To create a web API controller class is an easy job. For adding a controller in MVC structure you need to choose API controller with an empty read/write action.

It will auto-create Get, Post, Put and Delete methods in API. Apart from this, it will also create a new route into Global.asax.cs file with name RouteTable.

routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "DefaultApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional });

The running project will respond in XML format.
For example:

<ArrayOfString>
<string>value1</string>
<string>value2</string>
</ArrayOfString>

If we change the ‘Accept’ header then API will return the response in JSON format:

["value1","value2"]

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