RESTful .NET

1. REST Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Architecture of the World Wide Web 1
SOAP 4
REST 5
Resources and URIs 5
Uniform Interface 7
Resource Representations 9
Implementing a Simple RESTful Service Example 11
Resources 11
URIs and Uniform Interface 11
Representations 12
Interaction 13
Wrap-Up 14
Processes 16
Summary 16
2. WCF RESTful Programming Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Isn’t WCF All About SOAP? 19
Channels and Dispatching 19
HTTP Programming with WCF 3.0 22
Web Programming in WCF 3.5 27
WebHttpBinding 30
WebHttpBehavior 30
WebServiceHost 31
WebOperationContext 31
WebGetAttribute 32
UriTemplate 33
UriTemplate Literal Values 42

UriTemplate Special Values 43
UriTemplate QueryString 43
Summary 44
3. Programming Read-Only Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Using WebGetAttribute and UriTemplate 47
Data Formats 49
Message 50
DataContract 52
XmlSerializer 55
Hybrid Approach 57
Summary 58
4. Programming Read/Write Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
POST, PUT, and DELETE 59
Using WebInvokeAttribute 60
Resources 60
URIs and Uniform Interface 60
Representations 61
Implementation 61
Summary 71
5. Hosting WCF RESTful Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
WCF REST Hosting Isn’t a Special Case 73
Self-Hosting 74
Configuring, Opening, and Closing a ServiceHost 74
Base Addresses 79
ServiceHost Versus WebServiceHost 80
Custom ServiceHost 84
Hosting in IIS 86
ASP.NET Compatibility 92
Multiple Hostnames 95
Removing the .svc File Extension 96
Custom ServiceHostFactory 98
Hosting Wrap-Up 99
Summary 99
6. Programming Feeds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Building a Feed with WCF 101
SyndicationItem 105
Formatters 107
Exposing a Feed on a Live URI 110
Feed Validation 111