Great Tools for ASP.NET Web API Development

The new tool, Route Debugger, is a terrific one for aiding in the debugging of routes when developing for ASP.NET Web API. In the future, attribute routing will provide another way to specify call routing that does not require code-based registration of route values, which can pose problems when using an underlying framework, like Orchard, which might take control of the ASP.NET MVC startup sequence.

This tutorial provides very helpful information about how to leverage Visual Studio’s built-in templates to add OAuth support to an API. Customizing login buttons for supported providers can also be done.

Access Control Service

This article describes a part of what is necessary to use Azure Access Control Service, which is now FREE, to provide federated authentication to web services. This article is the most complete I have seen on how to implement everything with Azure Access Control Service.

More Android Open Source Libraries

This article provides a list of useful open source libraries for Android that is current. The Ultimate Android Library provides a comprehensive list with search capability that is very impressive. A list of the more interesting libraries listed are:

  • View Pager Indicator–From Roman Nurik, this creates a view pager pattern implementation.
  • Android Bootstrap–Provides a complete template from which a well designed Android application can be written. They even have a web site where your entire project file can be generated.
  • Form Validator–Provides a framework for client-side form validation.

Versioning RESTful Services with ASP.NET Web API

Quick Introduction

When building a comprehensive suite of applications (mobile, web, content management, and REST web services), there comes a need to support the versioning of your REST interfaces as your application evolves and your feature set grows. Howard Dierking’s article describes such a need in detail.

Quick Notes on Solution

This article provides great information about how to version your REST interfaces based on ApiController-derived class namespaces using the ASP.NET Web API.

As a final note, this PluralSight class provides an awesome introduction to building well designed web services that are scalable and evolve.