Building a C# Web API - REST

Question

I am about to start a project in C#. I\'ve never used c# and I was hoping I could get some implementation advice before I make a silly mistake and go down the wrong path.

Answer 1

Skip wcf and asmx. Instead just implement this stuff through generic handlers (.ashx) files.

You have complete control over what comes in and goes out without having to muck around with all the XML garbage. We did this a while back and haven't looked back.

In short, I'd use WCF if my endpoints were going to be something other than the web server. I'd use asmx if I had to deliver all of the responses back as XML AND I was assured only .net clients would be accessing it.

Generic handlers are like .aspx pages but without all of the overhead of the page lifecycle. It gives you get a context object that has access to all of the http post and query string variables and it's up to you to decide what to emit back.

They are simple to implement and have none of the "what was that config setting for again?" issues.

Here are a couple pretty good walkthroughs:
http://swindelles.com/2008/07/11/creating-rest-web-services-in-c-sharp/
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/aspnet/RestServicesInASPNET2.aspx