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I am wanting to build a Restful API using WCF however I am struggling to make a decision on how to accomplish this.

The WCF Rest Starter Kit was developed for .Net 3.5 and has not progressed past Preview 2. Although it can be used within the current .NET Framework and within Visual Studio 2010 it seems from my research to be dead in the water and superseded by the new WCF Web API which is currently in Preview 5.

On the other hand the WCF Web API is only at preview stage and should not really be used in a production application as many things could possibly change before its release. There is also no indication if its nearing completion and if it’s going to be in the next .NET Framework release and when that is intended to be.

I find myself between rock and a hard place and look to the wider community to provide me with some guidance on this if at all possible.

Cragly
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4 Answers4

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You should regard this tweet from Glenn Block.

Alexander Zeitler
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  • Interesting, I wonder how soon! Congrats on your Web API posts by the way Alexander I have followed them from the start has given me a great insight. So its so frustrating to wait for the release. But suppose that what happens when MS open up its development for feedback at such an early stage in the life cycle. – Cragly Nov 04 '11 at 11:22
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Using ASP.NET MVC for building a Restful API should be straight forward and easy way to do it.

However I've used WCF Web Api with WCF Rest Contrib in production without any problems.

See

Muhammad Hasan Khan
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  • Interesting never thought of doing it the MVC route and using its inbuilt routing and JsonResult (which I have used previously in combination with calls from jQuery). However it does get me over a hurdle at the moment its probably going to be a pain in 6 months when Web API is released with all its inbuilt functionality and Im rolling my own to some degree. However maybe I could swap it out when that time comes as long as my API and method calls all work in the same way ie GET, POST, PUT etc?? – Cragly Nov 04 '11 at 10:12
  • The ideal way to go about is to have all your logic inside a service class and your MVC Controller or a WCF Web Api Service class will be just a proxy so at the end of day if you want to swipe out something it shouldn't be difficult at all since the thing that matters the most is stil intact. – Muhammad Hasan Khan Nov 04 '11 at 11:00
  • I was just going to start off with my code inside the controller as per the examples. If I get you right are you saying have a UserService class which holds all my code for accessing the actual data and then have my UserController for handling the request and then calling the UserService class from within. Therefore if I need to change anything inside how the UserService class operates it doesn't effect the UserController as long as it still returns the specified type? – Cragly Nov 04 '11 at 11:12
  • Yes that's precisely what I mean. – Muhammad Hasan Khan Nov 04 '11 at 13:34
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Maybe OpenRasta is what you are looking for?

See also

RESTful framework alternatives to WCF

Community
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mrt181
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  • Thanks but need to stick with the Microsoft WCF stack. – Cragly Nov 04 '11 at 10:08
  • Then ask yourself - how mission critical is the service going to be, how long is it going to be operational, do you need all the new functionality of the newer api and when do you need the service. if you need it asap then take the old release, if you need the new features go for the newer and prepare yourself for the pain of api changes. so basically it depends but i would prefer the safe route - better safe than sorry – mrt181 Nov 04 '11 at 10:49
  • Your correct. The more I look into Hasans solution of using an MVC site the more I like it and I think it will fit my needs without the headaches of changes in the future as you so rightly say. – Cragly Nov 04 '11 at 10:57
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I depends on your application. If its a Website (also has views) that offers the REST API using ASP.NET MVC would be less technology, less effort, less know-how etc.

If its JUST an REST API choose what you like more from development style: ASP.NET MVC or WCF Web API

Daniel Fisher lennybacon
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