I am using asp.net for development that uses both web forms and mvc.
I have some code in in an application that produces a downloadable excel file. If there are any validation issues, it shows issues in why the program cannot produce the excel file.
My question is what is the best way to create this code so that it is shared between multiple C# applications that use either MVC or Web Forms. I am new to web services to thinking of using that but I understand there is WCF and also MS Web APIs. Just looking for some suggestions. As mentioned, the code will either produce a downloadable excel file or show validation errors on why it could not produce it due to data issues.
actually there is no such thing as best way. you can use asmx, wcf or web api. its completely up to you.
if you use asmx you can only write a soap web services.
if you use web API you only have restful.
but with wcf you have both soap and restful.
here you can read more about .net web services technology:
WCF vs ASP.NET Web API
Related
Some time ago, about 2 years ago, I was working on web portal that was developed in .NET 2.0. and had plenty of asmx pages.
The other day, one of my coleagues that was more adept at ASP .NET said: "ASMX is old and ugly, we shoud rewrite it". So we did it, as far as I remember we moved to ashx handler.
But now, as I'm preparing to pass 70-515, I came across one some materials that still suggest to learn asmx services (with respect to AJAX). So is that approach still valid in new ASP .NET 3.5/4.0 web projects? If so, then when & where should I use it?
Or perhaps 2 years ago, I was soo ignorant, that we used some kind of old version of asmx and we moved to new asmx.
P.S. As I was entering tag "asmx" I saw a message: "asmx is obsolete" : https://stackoverflow.com/tags/asmx/info
If you can work with WCF then yes the ASMX services are obsolete because the WCF can fully replace them with more performance and flexibility (multiple binding), functionality. If you can write a WCF service then if you will be requested to create an ASMX service for some reason there will be no problem for you to do it.
And moving from ASMX to ASHX was not a smart move because they are not for replacing each other.
Oddly we moved from ASMX to WCF and then back to ASMX. WCF has quite a few downsides, most of all is cross-platform compatibility issues. If everyone consuming your service is on .NET this isn't an issue, but not all other frameworks have supported the full stack, and frequently they just can't do what WCF produces. We also found that dealing with security and testing was a pain in WCF. If your webservice is marked secure, it has to be secure in WCF, even in your testing environment, which means getting actual SSL certs for each developer. A tremendous pain to be sure.
ASMX and WCF are technologies to build web services in .NET. WCF was introduced in .NET 3.0. Its goal is to provide a standard abstraction over all communication technologies and is a recommended way of implementing web services in .NET.
What are the differences between WCF and ASMX web services?
ASHX is a way to write HTTPHandlers in .NET. For more information on what are HTTPHandler
http://forums.asp.net/t/1166701.aspx/1
ASMX services are supported in .NET. However migrating to WCF is recommended. Also, you should write all new services in WCF.
Yes, asmx is obsolute with WCF service. you can use asmx when you are working with < 4.0 aspx.
ashx will not be exact replace of asmx.
If you have coding format issue / standard / plenty of code then you can go with MVC Web API 2 (4.0 itself). but compare to WCF you must ensure what will be the recipient's response expectation
("WCF is the evolution of the web service(ASMX) and support various protocols like TCP, HTTP, HTTPS, Named Pipes, MSMQ. but Web api only for HTTP(s)").
I'm looking to make a RESTful API on ASP.NET for a website. My problem is that I need it to be integrated into the website and not as a separate project.
I understand that WCF makes this really easy and its the ideal way to do it, but I don't think you can combine a WCF Service Project and a ASP.Net Website, Is this correct?
Is there a way we can do this using a webservice (asmx) file (since I know that asmx services use SOAP no?)
The reason I need this to be in the same project is that the customer will be able to purchase ssl for their domain (which the website is going to use) and I need to make the API secure as well, but the customer should not be asked to purchase two ssl or even a wildcard one.
Knowing this, is there a better easier way of doing this using WCF?
Take a look at the new MVC4 Beta, it's set to go live sometime between March and April this year and should be able to accommodate your requirement to build a RESTful web service alongside a web application. I haven't spent too much time with MVC4 to go into the details, but it's definitely worth a look. Links: Get MVC4; MVC4 and WebAPI blog.
Hope this helps!
You can use ASPNET MVC to build an API along with your website.
See How can I implement a site with ASP.NET MVC without using Visual Studio? for some details on building a basic MVC site.
ASPNET MVC services can respond in JSON or XML, or both.
There will be no special requirement for two SSL certs.
I have an ASP.NET MVC 3 application that exposes both WCF REST services. I'm using .NET 4. You'll have to pay attention to how you configure your routing. For example, my WCF services are prefixed with something like "api/v1/" while all other requests are handled by ASP.NET MVC 3.
I had a problem because IIS refused to serve some "localhost" requests (like when your MVC 3 controllers try to consume your WCF rest services). That was solved by adding an entry to my hosts file. Also be aware of this when implementing an OAuth 2.0 Resource Server or Authorization Server.
Using WCF for REST services works ok in .NET 4, but the JSON serialization sucks big time. There are issues with default dates and it is rather slow. You may want to look at using a different serializer. With WCF you sacrifice some flexibility for some features you get for free.
ASP.NET MVC 4 (and the WEBAPI) is still in BETA, so I'd avoid that for a project with a short term release date.
I'd actually use NancyFX. Setting up routes is super-easy, and it comes with built in XML and JSON serializers that act based on the data in the headers.
I have several asp.net website projects for various sites.
Currently I want to add REST API's to these projects so I can start developing mobile apps (using HTML5/JavaScript/CSS3 and PhoneGap) that make use of these webservices.
Since WCF is far more powerful than regular asp.net webservices (among others with control over the service and authentication/authorization), I'd love to add these to my existing website project.
I did a Google search but cant find anywhere a step-by-step tutorial how this can be done. And also if there's any functionality I'd possibly loose when adding WCF functionality
I was also thinking of creating a new project specifically for WCF, but think I'd rather add it to an existing website project.
Can anyone help me with this?
Depending on exactly what your needs are and how your current web site is configured, there are two approaches.
If you are using a Web Site Project, then you should create your WCF service in a different application:
1) Create a new ASP.Net Web Application Project.
2) Add a new item to the project and select the type of WCF Service or WCF Data Service.
When you deploy this project, you will deploy it to your web server, but not as part of your web site since configuring the web.config will be a large manual effort.
If you are using a Web Application Project, then you could add the WCF Service directly to your existing project. However, I only recommend this approach if you are Silverlight applets within the web site that rely on the user's authenticated credentials.
WCF can be configured with a lot of bindings and it can be configured to return xml or json(.net 4.0). Try to create a wcf service configured to use basichttpbinding or wsHttpBinding and to format the response as json and use jquery to interact with the wcf service. This article might help you http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/Cross_Domain_Call.aspx
I'm pretty new to Silverlight/RIA/Asp.Net thing, and I'm trying to figure if an Asp.Net website is required (for hosting the app) if I wish to use RIA services with Silverlight?
You could use a Web Application for hosing the RIA services in which is a compiled version of a Web Site. This is a distinction made by Visual Studio for different types of web projects but that might not be what you mean.
Really though RIA is just web service that takes a certain set of parameters. You technically could use PHP and generate the same content although that seems like it might be a bit of work unless there are frameworks that already do this.
Your RIA service will need to live somewhere online though. You don't need a website with web pages but you will need to run the service in a web server like IIS and that means it probably needs to live in a web site, even if the website doesn't have any web pages.
No, you can not use RIA services without an ASP.NET application. While it is true that you can create the backend data service with PHP (or a number of other web technologies), that would not be making use of RIA services.
The basic idea of RIA services is to provide a super simply means of plumbing your data classes through ASP.NET. Mostly it is used in conjunction with an ORM and additional metadata classes in your web application. You then provide a service to manipulate your data. When you compile the solution than the work you did in the web project gets pushed into your Silverlight application (through code generation).
can you please tell me what is the difference between webservice and webapplication.
A web service:
Typically returns XML or JSON or something like that, something that is easily decoded by a program
The results you get from a web service is typically not just shown to a person in its raw form (ie. since it isn't HTML, the results have to be reformatted, like placed into a form)
The intended usage of a web service is that it is something an application can talk to
A web application
Typically returns HTML or image data or similar
The results you get from a web application is usually shown to a person, through a web browser
As for similarities:
Both typically use HTTP(S) as the transport
Both typically use HTTP authentication/authorization to secure data
Both are typically hosted by a web server
So the main difference is who usually talks to them. A web service usually by another application, a web application usually by a web browser. Other than that they're pretty similar.
Here is the Web Application and here is Web Service
Web application: any application which resides on a server, and mainly used by human using web browser. All user interactivity is done through web pages.
Web service: server-based application (as above) which may be accessed over the web via HTTP, but is meant primarily for interaction with other programs. Generally it is WEB API for other applications.
In a nutshell, a Webservice uses special HTTP transport protocols to communicate to other servers. Webservices are meant to be used by other applications.
In the ASP.Net world, a web application is a type of Visual Studio project that allows building ASP.Net websites in a particular configuration. E.g. A Webservice can be built using a Web Application type project. Or a Web Application can also refer to a website that is meant to be used directly by an end-user ( unlike web services ).
Here are a few links and related SO questions...
What is the difference between an asp.net web method and a wcf service?
ASP.NET Web Site or ASP.NET Web Application?
Introduction to Web Services and ASP.NET
check this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_service
http://www.w3schools.com/webservices/ws_intro.asp