Web services
28 October 2018
Why isn't WCF supported in .Net Core?
Development shops that have invested heavily in WCF have been left high and dry by the emerging .Net Core ecosystem. There are a number of good reasons why WCF for .Net Core is unlikely to make it onto any official roadmaps…
25 April 2018
What makes a REST API mobile-friendly?
REST API design is dependent on the clients that will be consuming the resources - APIs that are designed for server-based integrations tend to look quite different from those that are designed to support mobile applications.
20 March 2018
GraphQL will not solve your API design problems
If you find REST APIs difficult to design, develop and scale, then your experience with GraphQL is not going to be any easier.
14 August 2017
Swagger is not WSDL for REST. It’s much less useful than that…
Swagger enables the same kind of automated discovery and integration that WSDL was invented to support. In doing so it undermines the design of REST APIs and doesn’t even provide adequate documentation.
4 June 2017
Can consumer-driven contracts manage breaking change in microservice integrations?
One of the more enduring problems with service integration is managing change in service interfaces. Consumer-driven contracts can help to detect breaking changes, but this visibility comes at a price.
28 November 2016
Generic controllers in ASP.Net Core
ASP.Net core ignores generic controllers by default, so you have to add support for them yourself at start up.
12 July 2016
Simplifying .Net REST API development: Nancy, self-hosting and ASP.Net Core
REST API development using ASP.Net WebAPI is so fussy compared to other ecosystems such as Node.js and Ruby. New frameworks are emerging that promise to simplify both development and hosting of APIs in the .Net world.
15 October 2015
Using the REST API connector as a data source in Informatica Cloud
It can be pretty straightforward to read REST API resources using Informatica Cloud - so long as you know which levers to pull and your data is in a sympathetic format.
27 September 2015
REST APIs don’t need a versioning strategy - they need a change strategy
Change in an API is inevitable. Attempting to manage this change through version numbering usually creates more problems than it solves.
22 November 2014
The RESTafarian flame wars – common disagreements over REST API design
Debates on the finer points of REST can bring out the worst in people as they seek to define what is and is not “RESTful”. In most cases the debate is unlikely to make the difference between success and failure for an API.
21 August 2014
Messaging shouldn’t be used for queries
When developers first start using messaging they can be tempted to use it as a brand new hammer for every nail. Messaging brings a lot to the party, but it isn’t necessarily a suitable transport for fast, synchronous query processing.
22 July 2014
Using a tolerant reader for web service integrations in .Net
Using version tolerant readers can help you to cope with changes to service contracts though this does come at the expense of a weaker contract. The approach is more appropriate for fluid services that are prone to frequent change.
21 April 2014
Hackable URIs may look nice, but they don’t have much to do with REST and HATEOAS
Structured and Hackable URIs are a staple part of SEO-friendly websites. Although developers generically expect to see them in HTTP-based APIs, they should be irrelevant to consumers of a fully RESTful API that leverages HATEOAS.
6 February 2014
Comparing Web API 2 and WCF for building services on HTTP and REST
On the face of it, Microsoft took WCF’s promise of “one implementation, any protocol” and shot it in the head with ASP.NET Web API. Now that the Web API has matured a little it is easier to see them as complimentary technologies that deliver very different types of service.
19 October 2013
Can APX help in developing usable and accessible APIs?
Given how important APIs have become in driving the reach of applications and services, it’s surprising how little investment is made in the usability of APIs as opposed to UIs. Perhaps the principals and techniques used by UX should be applied to developing more effective APIs…