Asp.net Web Api Configuration

Question

I am new to asp.net mvc world. So I have a question

I have already developed a web app using Asp.net MVC (also deployed on production).

Currently I am working on mobile apps. For this I need web services (restful).

For Restful web services do I have to make a new project (within existing solution) or can I incorporate Restful webservices into my existing (Asp.net MVC) project ? (I prefer 2nd option if possible)

If I have to make new project for Web Api, then how will I deploy both projects on production knowing that Web Api project is dependent on Asp.net-MVC project ?

Answer 1

One thing you need to understand first is whether it's a web service,wcf service or a Web API the only thing you need is to get a json/xml output which you can use in your mobile app.

Let say you have and asp.net mvc application which has some action methods, but you might be returning a View or PartialView which is not you want for a mobile app to parse. So you need to create an action method which returns JsonResult.

If you want to use all the RESTFul verbs like POST,PUT,GET,DELETE you can add another controller which inherits from APIController and write methods there, but either ways output is same.

So it's up to you what to do and how to proceed, only thing is with an APIController you will have some more verbs and code ahve some special returns like "Ok" etc