Website Kata 1

This kata is designed to introduce you to creating a web API using ASP.Net Core.

Resources

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/web-api/?view=aspnetcore-2.1

Prepare

1. verify dotnet version dotnet --version is higher than 2.0.0

Kata

In this kata you will create a web API that can return a list of products

In a terminal:

1. Navigate to .\app-website-1
2. run dotnet new webapi -n "ProductsApi"
3. cd ProductsApi
4. run dotnet restore
5. run dotnet build
6. run dotnet run
7. Navigate to http://localhost:5000/api/Values to check the project template works

Debugging in Visual Studio

You can debug in Visual Studio by opening the .csproj file When saving files you will be prompted to create a .sln and a launch settings file. Delete the launch settings file as you only want the .sln file.

You can now run by debugging in VS, or from the command line.

Creating the products controller

Delete auto generated ValuesController and add new class ProductsController with contents:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;

namespace ProductsApi.Controllers
{
    [Route("api/[controller]")]
    public class ProductsController : Controller
    {
        [HttpGet]
        public IEnumerable<string> Get()
        {
            return new string[] { "SQL Source Control" };
        }
    }
}

Navigate to http://localhost:5000/api/Products to check it works. You should see SQL Source Control in your browser.

Note: Remember to restart the server each time you change the code

Creating a data model for products

Create a new folder called Model

In Model create a new class, Product, with properties:

public string Name { get; }
public string Description { get; }

Alter Get() in ProductsController to return an IEnumerable<Product>

Navigate to http://localhost:5000/api/Products to check it works

Reading products from in-memory storage

Amend ProductsController to maintain a collection of products

Create a parameter-less constructor for ProductsController and initialize your collection

Return your collection in Get()

Navigate to http://localhost:5000/api/Products to check it works

Adding new products

Create a new method on ProductsController to handle Post requests:

[HttpPost]
public void Post([FromBody] Product value) { }

Add logic to add the product from the post request to your collection

In order to test a POST request you'll need some tooling. I recommend Postman: https://www.getpostman.com/

Send a POST request to http://localhost:5000/api/Products with a Content-Type of application/json and body:

{
	"Name": "Readyroll",
	"Description": "Ready to roll"
}

Navigate to http://localhost:5000/api/Products to check it works

It doesn't work!

This is because controllers are instantiated per request

In order to persist data across requests we need to use dependency injection

First create a new directory Store, and a class, ProductStore

Move the logic for persisting the Product collection to ProductStore

e.g. it should have a contract like:

public IEnumerable<Product> GetAll();

public void Add(Product product);

Now make ProductsController depend on the new ProductStore by passing it in the constructor and assigning it to a field

Finally, in Startup, find ConfigureServices() and add the following line:

services.AddSingleton<ProductStore>();

This will register ProductStore with the dependency injection system

Because we're using singleton scope, all controller instances that ask for a product store will now have access to the same one

Now make the POST request again, and navigate to http://localhost:5000/api/Products to see if it works

See https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/mvc/controllers/dependency-injection?view=aspnetcore-2.1 for more details about dependency injection

How does it work?

Look at the signature for Post in ProductsController again

public void Post([FromBody] Product value)

Notice the [FromBody] attribute. This means the value will be automatically parsed from JSON in the request body into the C# type. This process is known as 'Parameter binding'

Getting a specific product with parameter binding

Parameters can be bound from the request URI also.

For instance, given:

GET http://localhost:5000/api/Products/SQL%20Source%20Control

Name can be bound to an argument for your Get method

On ProductsController change the signature for Get to take a string name. e.g:

public IEnumerable<Product> Get(string name)

At the top of ProductsController and a new Route attribute to match part of the URI to the name argument in Get

[Route("api/[controller]/{name}")]

If no name is specified in the URI, then name will be null

Add logic to return products by name if the supplied name isn't null

Add a new product using a POST request, then search for it by name: e.g: GET http://localhost:5000/api/Products/SQL%20Source%20Control

Note: the routes are case sensitive