一、RESTful和Web API
is a software architecture style consisting of guidelines and best practices for creating scalable web services. REST is a coordinated set of constraints applied to the design of components in a distributed hypermdedia system that can lead to a more performant and maintainable architecture. -- wikipedia
is a framework that makes it easy to build HTTP services that reach a broad range of clients, including browsers and mobile devices. ASP.NET Web API is an ideal platform for building RESTful applications on the .NET Framework.
原来RESTful是一种软件架构风格（REST是一种设计风格，而不是一种标准），而ASP.NET Web API是其在.NET平台的一种标准/实现。目前在三种主流的Web Services实现方案中，因为REST模式与复杂的SOAP和XML -PRC相比更加简洁，越来越多的web服务开始采用REST风格设计和实现。
ASP.NET整体框架结构如下图。可以看出，Web API支持JSON和XML，面向的是多种客户终端，包括多浏览器和各种移动设备。
二、简单示例
新建ASP.NET Web Application，命名NBAApp
选择Empty模板，下面选择Web API，更改Authentication为No Authentication
新建一个Model - Player
using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Linq;using System.Web;namespace NBAApp.Models{ public class Player { public int Id { get; set; } public int No { get; set; } public string Name { get; set; } public string Position { get; set; } public string Team { get; set; } }}
新建Controller - PlayersController，模板选择Web API 2 Controller - Empty
编辑代码如下
using NBAApp.Models;using System;using System.Collections.Generic;using System.Linq;using System.Net;using System.Net.Http;using System.Web.Http;namespace NBAApp.Controllers{ public class PlayersController : ApiController { Player[] players = new Player[] { new Player { Id = 1, No = 3, Name = "Chris Paul", Position = "Point Guard", Team = "Los Angeles Clippers" }, new Player { Id = 2, No = 3, Name = "Dwyane Wade", Position = "Shooting Guard", Team = "Miami Heat" }, new Player { Id = 3, No = 23, Name = "LeBron James", Position = "Forward", Team = "Cleveland Cavaliers" }, new Player { Id = 4, No = 21, Name = "Tim Duncan", Position = "Power forward", Team = "San Antonio Spurs" }, new Player { Id = 5, No = 33, Name = "Marc Gasol", Position = "Center", Team = "Memphis Grizzlies" } }; public IEnumerable GetAllPlayers() { return players; } public IHttpActionResult GetPlayer(int id) { var player = players.FirstOrDefault (p => p.Id == id); if (player == null) { return NotFound(); } return Ok(player); } }}
添加Html - Index.html页面
编辑代码如下
NBA App All Players
Search by ID
执行效果如下（Chrome浏览器）
F12调出Developer Tools，点击红点Recording Network Log，刷新页面，结果如下
点击进去，并选择Response标签，可以清楚地看到传输交换的是JSON格式的字符
代码下载