I need the opinion of the person who has used/uses 'Restier' in the production.
I see some issues - security is disabled by default - all data can be read by the user who is not even authorized on site. Even if we plan to restrict some data - you can not remove one column from the table - only all columns will be visible to the client.
And the last - all business-logic moved to browser javascript - which is not good. If we need to perform a complex operation (which must be in a single transaction) - it is not possible.
My opinion - 'Restier' is designed for very simple RESTful projects - such as the address book, todo list etc. If you develop the big commercial application - that operate complex data scheme and operate money transactions - you should avoid using 'Restier' in a project.
Any thoughts appreciated.
REST is an arquitectural style for Web Services.
OData is a standard that describes a good technology independent implementation of REST.
RESTier is a library that implements OData V4.
The complexity of your domain must be in your Domain and Application Layer.
You can use RESTier to expose your domain functionality as a WebService the way you like. You could expose your entities only for Read operations and expose your use cases (Application Layer) as OData Actions and Functions which can the be consumed by any kind of client (iOS, Android, Web Client such as Asp.Net Mvc, Wpf , any JavaScript Frontend etc.)
If you have a complex domain I would suggest you to investigate Domain Driven Design.
Now to your questions...
Regarding security you can implement all the goodness of Asp.Net in Restier.
Regarding data shaping you never expose your domain entities directly through the Web Service. I would suggest to implement factories that convert back and forth between for example Customer (domain entity which represents the business logic) and CustomerDto (simple Data Transfer Object) . With this you can shape your data to be exposed the way you require.
Having the business logic in the Front End (UI Layer), as you mentioned, is considered an anti pattern (smart UI anti pattern) if you have big domain complexity. (For simple CRUD apps is ok). Restier does not push you in this direction. It is a matter of how you architect your solution.
Hope this helps you.
Related
After reading this great article I thought about migrating our platform to micro-services architecture.
Our stack is Asp.Net Web API (Rest...) on the server.
Angular 2 in the front.
I wanted to make a little proof of concept to check if we should continue down this road.
As for my understanding, I need to take some chunks from our web app and slice it into micro services. As for the beginning, I want to take 2 screens I have, "Users" And "Purchase History" (each of them is too big to be micro service but this is just for the POC) and create each one of them as micro service.
I read that the UI should be part of the microservice, so should I create a new angular two app for each one of them?
If so, should I use rest to call for the rendered HTML?
Frontend and backend API, two services (components) – it’s already some kind of microservice architecture. The questions are how big your components, what kind of logic they have, will you have benefits if you split some logic to different services?
Per microservice architecture every service (component) of your system should have some dedicated logic (domain), solves some related problems, persists data to its own data-store, can be developed and deployed separately. In some cases, data-store can be shared between services.
So, the goal of splitting logic into different services is making your application easier to develop, maintenance, support and understand. Too many small services can bring a lot of overheads. To create a service, you need to spend additional development time, a service is also a deployment item, communication between services has network overheads. So, you should careful consider all pros and cons of splitting logic into services. Some balance should be found.
Going back to the question if "Users" and "Purchase History" are totally different, they don’t have common logic, can be stored in different databases and both are complicated enough, so you can split them into two services. The same about UI parts. The main thing is that splitting should bring you benefits - not overheads.
About using rest - it’s up to you, rest architecture is not required for microservice architecture but very often they are used together. Rest is about design of your services, how they expose API and so on.
I am pretty new to stuff related to server and backend services and I want to develop a mobile app with a backend part. I want this backend to serve an ios app, an android app as well as a website.
My concerns today are how does the frontend part communicate with the backend part :
does it work the same way a website works ? (Http request to the server ?)
how does happen the exchange of datas between the frontend and the backend ?
which are the common solutions to my problem ?
is there an efficient way to desing this backend to serve mobile apps as well as a website ?
is parse (https://parse.com/) a good starting point ?
Thanks
Looking at your questions in turn:
does it work the same way a website works ? (Http request to the server ?)
There are many options, but probably the most common, or fashionable, at the moment is to use a RESTFUL interface:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer
Previously, a SOAP based web service might have been the most common choice:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SOAP
See here for some discussion on why you might use REST rather than the SOAP now:
Why would one use REST instead of SOAP based services?
how does happen the exchange of datas between the frontend and the backend ?
Assuming REST, HTTP is used to transport messages and application data is typically included in XML or JSON forms
which are the common solutions to my problem ?
I think this is covered by the other parts of the question/answer.
is there an efficient way to desing this backend to serve mobile apps as well as a website ?
Thats very dependent on your particular server application, especially its size and architecture. If the server application is broken down into components or parts, and the parts that generate the 'views' or the 'HTML' pages for the web app are distinct and well separated from the 'backend' parts of your server application, AND your application is of a type that the functionality is largely the same whether the end user is using a web site or a mobile and it is just the way the view are generated for the different devices that differs, then an efficient design would be one that keeps as much of the backend common as possible. If the use of the application is very different when used by a mobile client this may not make sense. More generally, an efficient design would keep as much functionality as possible common between the Mobile and Web applications.
It would definitely be worth becoming familiar with the 'Model View Controller' architectural pattern as most of the server side frameworks, as well as many of the Javascript Web client frameworks and even the iOS and (to a lesser extent) Android frameworks use these concepts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model–view–controller
One important considerations whether you need 'push' or notification like functionality on your mobile app. If so you may want to look at some of the common solutions to understand if they meet your needs - probably easiest to start with Apple and Google's offerings to get an understanding, but there are lots of other solutions available also:
https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/NetworkingInternet/Conceptual/RemoteNotificationsPG/Chapters/ApplePushService.html
http://developer.android.com/google/gcm/index.html
is parse (https://parse.com/) a good starting point ?
I am not familiar with this service but you might be better looking at a simple REST based approach first and see if it meets your needs.
To answer your question
is parse (https://parse.com/) a good starting point ?
Yes it is.
But I would recommend you to read well on topics such as
REST services
RESTful services vs SOAP - a good article
REST/JSON vs REST/JSON
Services such as parse are called Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaaS).They are ideal to quickly create web services for mobile developers who have little experience with backend development.
A quick search on google on 'MBaaS' will return many services similar to parse and most offer free developer accounts. (With a certain Number of free API calls per second/app)
I have used Apigee similarly & the open source equivalent is Usergrid.
These services will provide a GUI for the developer to create & deploy services and the services are immediately available.
Separate test & production end points will be available.
In addition to basic CRUD operations, these services will also enable easy social network integration, caching & analytics (Depends on service provider)
Features such as security, scalability are built in by the MBaaS provider(Like Parse).
I have worked with both technologies yet I’m about to build a new backbone services layer and thinking about WCF vs Web-Api.
The idea is to create a layer of services that will be consumed by both internal .NET components and by front applications.
The following are issues are not relevant to this case:
TCP, UDP
Proxy generator
WS-* standards like Reliable Messaging, Transactions
I'm considering about 2 approaches:
Web-api for app front application above n-tier WCF services
Web-api for app front and for a flexible services layer, thus avoiding HTTP hop between services
Our system is financial oriented, some services will operate as data services using the using some kind of OData and some will perform complex financial transaction (using complex types).
I've read about the new stuff that was recently added to Web-Api 2 and it seems to be a leading platform. I've Googled a lot about pros and cons and that WCF is still alive (or frozen).
A few of the relevant references:
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/341414/WCF-or-ASP-NET-Web-APIs-My-two-cents-on-the-subjec
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj823172.aspx
Under the assumption that all the services are on the same LAN and this is targeted to enterprise system, what would you recommend and why?
Here's the question... Do you need transport layer flexibility or are you fine with them being http(s) only services? If the services are HTTP-only and (as you say) you don't care about proxy gen and WS-* then I can't for the life of me think of a reason why you'd use WCF.
The programming model for REST / plain old http(s) is just so much leaner, the MVC "style" much more natural and not to mention that WCF can just get really complex really fast, makes me think that I would need a really good reason to choose WCF in 2013...
Not to throw a spanner into the works, but have you considered Service Stack:
https://servicestack.net/download
That's what I'd be using... (btw I'm not affiliated with them in any way / shape / form).
If you need multiple endpoints/transport protocols, or the ability for other applications to consume your services in .NET and work with them as you would any other referenced library (via web reference and a SOAP endpoint) the WCF should be your choice.
If you're looking for something lightweight and convention-based and/or you're looking to create a RESTful API, and HTTP(S) is an adequate transport, then Web API is the way to go. In this case, if you want the strong typing that you'd get with a SOAP web reference you'd probably be wise to write a reusable library that acts as middleware for consuming the services and providing data.
I am trying to decide which way to go. I have a solution that needs to have a web service and a client side which is a windows phone 7 project. the WP7 project needs to communicate with the database through the WCF service.
I am a little bit confused as to which way i should choose to go, and what are the differences, advantages/disadvantages of regular WCF service file VS the WCF Data Service.
Which way will be easier to go with considering my wp7 app needs to run queries on some tables on the database, nothing too fancy.
Any explanation will be welcomed.
Thanks
WCF Data Services are great if you need CRUD and flexible query capabilities - they allow you to expose underlying data (e.g. via Entity Framework) and control security with a minimum of development effort, as a RESTful API, especially to AJAX and SPA type client front ends. (Also, note that WebAPI now also offers similar capabilities).
WCF Services are more for Formal "Service" and "Operation" integration capabilities, where there is a lot more business focus, e.g. rules, processing, workflow, etc.
e.g. WCF would be useful to Submit a Claim for Processing (custom / rich graph of data input and output), Trigger a Nightly batch job (void response), etc.
Also, you can combine both technologies, e.g. for a CQRS type architecture, by using Data Services for the Query, and WCF for the Command type capabilities.
I am building an ASP.NET 3.5 Web Application which has the three standard layers (DAL,BLL and UI). I have to consume some third party web services and display the information on the UI. In which layer should I consume this web services and can you also point me to some good examples?
As is normally the case in questions like this, "it depends." It depends on what the Web Service is doing for you and whether you need to do anything else with the response when you get it. I'm guessing, however that it's giving you supplementary data to your BLL. In that case some Infrastructure service between your DAL and BLL might be a good place.
It's never a good idea to have your UI layer directly depend on a third-party service. What happens if it changes?
In this kind of situation I've generally regarded the third-party Web service as a similar resource to a SQL database, so I've wrapped it in its own layer which is then called from the business logic.
This makes it possible to map the Web service objects to my own domain objects. It also makes it easy to stub out the Web service for testing, and decouples my business logic from the third-party service.
In many cases its usually in the business or service layer. Usually several different combinations of MVC layers make calls into the service layer, and so the common functionality of a Web service should be found there.