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  • Rails "rake test" crashing

    - by Homer J. Simpson
    Hi, this might be rather unspecific, but I'm trying to do 'rake test' on a new rails app, and end up with (in /Users/myname/dev/railstest/RailsApplication1) /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby -I"lib:test" "/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb" /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby -I"lib:test" "/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb" /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/bin/ruby -I"lib:test" "/Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8/gems/rake-0.8.7/lib/rake/rake_test_loader.rb" No other output. System is Leopard 10.5, Rails 2.3.5, Ruby 1.86 Any ideas ?

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  • Compilation error on a user control

    - by MikeP
    I'm stumped! We have a user control for managing account information. We use this particular control on two pages. On one page, everything works perfectly and meets our expectation. On the second page however we receive compilation errors stating that: "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\lrpcentral\0e987bea\6719c8b6\App_Web_PageThatFails.aspx.f3d462c1.oi52bvii.0.cs(172): error CS0433: The type 'xxxx_ascx' exists in both 'c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\APPLICATIONNAME\0e987bea\6719c8b6\App_Web_xxxx.ascx.cdcab7d2.xbnvt2za.dll' and 'c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\APPLICATIONNAME\0e987bea\6719c8b6\App_Web_eix7xllr.dll' My problem is similar to Cyril's but the "delete everything from Temp" is not an option for me, and Cyril's solution does not apply since the only variable we have is contained in the designer file, which is not deployed to our production environment (we pre-compile). After reading David's answer (here) I examined my directories for circular dependency and was unable to find any. Structure: Top Level Page that works Control Directory A Page that causes the error

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  • Extending an entity

    - by Kim L
    I have class named AbstractUser, which is annotated with @MappedSuperclass. Then I have a class named User (@Entity) which extends AbstractUser. Both of these exist in a package named foo.bar.framework. When I use these two classes, everything works just fine. But now I've imported a jar containing these files to another project. I'd like to reuse the User class and expand it with a few additional fields. I thought that @Entity public class User extends foo.bar.framework.User would do the trick, but I found out that this implementation of the User only inherits the fields from AbstractUser, but nothing from foo.bar.framework.User. The question is, how can I get my second User class to inherit all the fields from the first User entity class? Both User class implementation have different table names defined with @Table(name = "name").

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  • Things to keep in mind during Application Migration: ColdFusion to Spring

    - by Rachel
    This question is regarding migration project. Currently the legacy Application is in ColdFusion and we want to migrate it to Spring Framework. So my main questions are: What are the things to keep in mind while considering Migration Project ? Are there any specifics things that I need to keep in mind while considering migration from ColdFusion to Spring Framework ? How do ColdFusion stack up with Spring Framework ? What resources would you recommend to get myself familiar with before starting on Migration Project from ColdFusion to Spring ? I know some might think that this is very open ended question but this is my first Migration Project and I have never had any experience with Migration Project and what looking for some useful guidance over here.

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  • Starting to construct a data access layer. Things to consider?

    - by Phil
    Our organisation uses inline sql. We have been tasked with providing a suitable data access layer and are weighing up the pro's and cons of which way to go... Datasets ADO.net Linq Entity framework Subsonic Other? Some tutorials and articles I have been using for reference: http://www.asp.net/(S(pdfrohu0ajmwt445fanvj2r3))/learn/data-access/tutorial-01-vb.aspx http://www.simple-talk.com/dotnet/.net-framework/designing-a-data-access-layer-in-linq-to-sql/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc188750.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa697427(VS.80).aspx http://www.subsonicproject.com/ I'm extremely torn, and finding it very difficult to make a decision on which way to go. Our site is a series of 2 internal portals and a public web site. We are using vs2008 sp1 and framework version 3.5. Please can you give me advise on what factors to consider and any pro's and cons you have faced with your data access layer. Thanks.

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  • Lightweight PHP library alternative to common MVC frameworks

    - by artarad
    Hi hi, I'm looking for a easy to learn php library to use for my coming web app project. I've recently finished a web app with fully handwritten raw php code and it's absolutely hard to be done again for another project. even though I have the recent project code snippets to be used again, but due to their non-structural arrangement (not object oriented), i have no passion to use 'em again. I have no experience with common frameworks like ZF, CakePhp, CodeIgniter, so I think to get my hands on a multipurpose OO library for my web app and the framework learning will be the next step! any suggestion? UPDATE: Many thanks guys, I have not enough time to get through the depth of every lib or framework you have kindly introduced. Since I'm going one step further I'm going to use ZF as famous framework which could provide me more job opportunities perhaps. thankssss :)

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  • Simple XNA 2D demo: why is my F# version slower than C# version?

    - by Den
    When running this XNA application it should display a rotated rectangle that moves from top-left corner to bottom-right corner. It looks like my F# version is noticeably much slower. It seems that the Draw method skips a lot of frames. I am using VS 2012 RC, XNA 4.0, .NET 4.5, F# 3.0. I am trying to make it as functional as possible. What could be the reason for poor performance? C#: class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { using (var game = new FlockGame()) { game.Run(); } } } public class FlockGame : Game { private GraphicsDeviceManager graphics; private DrawingManager drawingManager; private Vector2 position = Vector2.Zero; public FlockGame() { graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this); } protected override void Initialize() { drawingManager = new DrawingManager(graphics.GraphicsDevice); this.IsFixedTimeStep = false; } protected override void Update(GameTime gameTime) { position = new Vector2(position.X + 50.1f * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds, position.Y + 50.1f * (float)gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds); base.Update(gameTime); } protected override void Draw(GameTime gameTime) { //this.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Lavender) drawingManager.DrawRectangle(position, new Vector2(100.0f, 100.0f), 0.7845f, Color.Red); base.Draw(gameTime); } } public class DrawingManager { private GraphicsDevice GraphicsDevice; private Effect Effect; public DrawingManager(GraphicsDevice graphicsDevice) { GraphicsDevice = graphicsDevice; this.Effect = new BasicEffect(this.GraphicsDevice) { VertexColorEnabled = true, Projection = Matrix.CreateOrthographicOffCenter(0.0f, this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width, this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f) }; } private VertexPositionColor[] GetRectangleVertices (Vector2 center, Vector2 size, float radians, Color color) { var halfSize = size/2.0f; var topLeft = -halfSize; var bottomRight = halfSize; var topRight = new Vector2(bottomRight.X, topLeft.Y); var bottomLeft = new Vector2(topLeft.X, bottomRight.Y); topLeft = Vector2.Transform(topLeft, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center; topRight = Vector2.Transform(topRight, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center; bottomRight = Vector2.Transform(bottomRight, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center; bottomLeft = Vector2.Transform(bottomLeft, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center; return new VertexPositionColor[] { new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topLeft, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topRight, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topRight, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomRight, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomRight, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomLeft, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomLeft, 0.0f), color), new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topLeft, 0.0f), color) }; } public void DrawRectangle(Vector2 center, Vector2 size, float radians, Color color) { var vertices = GetRectangleVertices(center, size, radians, color); foreach (var pass in this.Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes) { pass.Apply(); this.GraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives(PrimitiveType.LineList, vertices, 0, vertices.Length/2); } } } F#: namespace Flocking module FlockingProgram = open System open Flocking [<STAThread>] [<EntryPoint>] let Main _ = use g = new FlockGame() g.Run() 0 //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ namespace Flocking open System open System.Diagnostics open Microsoft.Xna.Framework open Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics open Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input type public FlockGame() as this = inherit Game() let mutable graphics = new GraphicsDeviceManager(this) let mutable drawingManager = null let mutable position = Vector2.Zero override Game.LoadContent() = drawingManager <- new Rendering.DrawingManager(graphics.GraphicsDevice) this.IsFixedTimeStep <- false override Game.Update gameTime = position <- Vector2(position.X + 50.1f * float32 gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds, position.Y + 50.1f * float32 gameTime.ElapsedGameTime.TotalSeconds) base.Update gameTime override Game.Draw gameTime = //this.GraphicsDevice.Clear(Color.Lavender) Rendering.DrawRectangle(drawingManager, position, Vector2(100.0f, 100.0f), 0.7845f, Color.Red) base.Draw gameTime //------------------------------------------------------------------------------ namespace Flocking open System open System.Collections.Generic open Microsoft.Xna.Framework open Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Graphics open Microsoft.Xna.Framework.Input module Rendering = [<AllowNullLiteral>] type DrawingManager (graphicsDevice : GraphicsDevice) = member this.GraphicsDevice = graphicsDevice member this.Effect = new BasicEffect(this.GraphicsDevice, VertexColorEnabled = true, Projection = Matrix.CreateOrthographicOffCenter(0.0f, float32 this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Width, float32 this.GraphicsDevice.Viewport.Height, 0.0f, 0.0f, 1.0f)) let private GetRectangleVertices (center:Vector2, size:Vector2, radians:float32, color:Color) = let halfSize = size / 2.0f let mutable topLeft = -halfSize let mutable bottomRight = halfSize let mutable topRight = new Vector2(bottomRight.X, topLeft.Y) let mutable bottomLeft = new Vector2(topLeft.X, bottomRight.Y) topLeft <- Vector2.Transform(topLeft, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center topRight <- Vector2.Transform(topRight, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center bottomRight <- Vector2.Transform(bottomRight, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center bottomLeft <- Vector2.Transform(bottomLeft, Matrix.CreateRotationZ(radians)) + center [| new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topLeft, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topRight, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topRight, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomRight, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomRight, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomLeft, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(bottomLeft, 0.0f), color) new VertexPositionColor(new Vector3(topLeft, 0.0f), color) |] let DrawRectangle (drawingManager:DrawingManager, center:Vector2, size:Vector2, radians:float32, color:Color) = let vertices = GetRectangleVertices(center, size, radians, color) for pass in drawingManager.Effect.CurrentTechnique.Passes do pass.Apply() drawingManager.GraphicsDevice.DrawUserPrimitives(PrimitiveType.LineList, vertices, 0, vertices.Length/2)

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  • Interface that Entails the Implementation of Indexer

    - by Ngu Soon Hui
    I am looking for a framework-defined interface that declares indexer. In other words, I am looking for something like this: public interface IYourList<T> { T this[int index] { get; set; } } I just wonder whether .Net framework contains such interface? If yes, what is it called? You might ask why I can't just create the interface myself. Well, I could have. But if .Net framework already has that why should I reinvent the wheel?

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  • zeromq installtion on mac os snow leopard

    - by Ashish
    I have installed zeromq 2.1.11 on mac os x using the steps given on http://www.zeromq.org/area:download Then i installed pyzmq (python bindings ) But i get the following error : import zmq Traceback (most recent call last): File "<pyshell#1>", line 1, in <module> import zmq File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/__init__.py", line 35, in <module> from zmq.utils import initthreads # initialize threads ImportError: dlopen(/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/utils/initthreads.so, 2): no suitable image found. Did find: /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages/zmq/utils/initthreads.so: no matching architecture in universal wrapper

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  • Gem::Install Error

    - by Tian
    When I try to cleanup my rails versions with sudo gem cleanup rails I get the following error: Cleaning up installed gems... Attempting to uninstall rails-2.3.5 Unable to uninstall rails-2.3.5: Gem::InstallError: cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails` Attempting to uninstall rails-1.2.6 Unable to uninstall rails-1.2.6: Gem::InstallError: cannot uninstall, check `gem list -d rails` gem list -d rails results in: rails (2.3.8, 2.3.5, 1.2.6) Author: David Heinemeier Hansson Rubyforge: http://rubyforge.org/projects/rails Homepage: http://www.rubyonrails.org Installed at (2.3.8): /Library/Ruby/Gems/1.8 (2.3.5): /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 (1.2.6): /System/Library/Frameworks/Ruby.framework/Versions/1.8/usr/lib/ruby/gems/1.8 Web-application framework with template engine, control-flow layer, and ORM. Any one know what's wrong?

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  • ZeroMQ Java Installation Problem

    - by Ivan
    Hi everyone, I'm trying to install ZeroMQ's Java library but I've been having problem. First error was ./configure complained about JAVA_HOME which everything seemed to be fine but I couldn't manage to solve it but I've found a particular solution in ZeroMQ's chat logs. The suggested solution was; JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home" ./configure However it doesn't work for me. The error message I've been receiving is checking for jni.h in /Library/Java/Home/include... configure: error: cannot find jni.h in /Library/Java/Home/include. I've tried JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Home" ./configure and JAVA_HOME="/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Home" ./configure as well but still no luck. I'd like to hear StackOverflowers' thoughts about how I can solve this. Thanks.

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  • Getting a PasteScript error when I try to serve an existing Pylons app.

    - by Sarah
    I'm trying to serve an existing Python 2.5 Pylons application on OS X Snow Leopard. I've already installed Python 2.5 and set it as the default Python installation, installed paster, and installed the version of Pylons the app needs (0.9.6.1) as well as other eggs... but when I cd to the main folder and do "paster serve development.ini" I get the following: File "/usr/local/bin/paster", line 5, in <module> from pkg_resources import load_entry_point File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 2603, in <module> File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 666, in require File "/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.5/Extras/lib/python/pkg_resources.py", line 565, in resolve pkg_resources.DistributionNotFound: PasteScript==1.7.3 I definitely have done "easy_install PasteScript==1.7.3" and I still get this error. Is there something really obvious I'm missing? Help? Thanks in advance.

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  • Constantly changing frameworks/APIs - how do we keep up?

    - by Jamie Chapman
    This question isn't really for any specific technology but more of general developer question. We all know from experience that things change. Frameworks evolve, new features are added and stuff gets removed. For example, how might a product using version 1.0 of the "ABC" framework adapt when version 2.0 comes along (ABC could be .NET, Java, Cocoa, or whatever you want)? One solution might be to make the frameworks backward compatible; so that code written for 1.0 will still work in version 2.0 of the framework. Another might be to selectively target only version 1.0 of the framework, but this might leave many fancy new features unused (many .NET 2.0 apps seem to do this) Any thoughts on what we as developers should do as best practice to keep our technologies up to date, whilst not breaking our applications?

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  • C# asp.net Howto load an aspx page from another project?

    - by Martijn
    I have 2 projects. One project is a core and contains the GUI which is always the same and acts like a kind of framework. The second project is an application that must be set in the framework. The framework consists of a masterpage and a content page (application.aspx). From my second project I want to load the application.aspx. Is this possible? And if so.. how?

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  • Javascript: Access the right scope "under" apply(...)

    - by Chau
    This is a very old problem, but I cannot seem to get my head around the other solutions presented here. I have an object function ObjA() { var a = 1; this.methodA = function() { alert(a); } } which is instantiated like var myObjA = new ObjA(); Later on, I assign my methodA as a handler function in an external Javascript Framework, which invokes it using the apply(...) method. When the external framework executes my methodA, this belongs to the framework function invoking my method. Since I cannot change how my method is called, how do I regain access to the private variable a? My research tells me, that closures might be what I'm looking for.

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  • Inheritance - initialization problem

    - by dumbquestion
    I have a c++ class derived from a base class in a framework. The derived class doesn't have any data members because I need it to be freely convertible into a base class and back - the framework is responsible for loading and saving the objects and I can't change it. My derived class just has functions for accessing the data. But there are a couple of places where I need to store some temporary local variables to speed up access to data in the base class. mydata* MyClass::getData() { if ( !m_mydata ) { // set to NULL in the constructor m_mydata = some_long_and complex_operation_to_get_the_data_in_the_base() } return m_mydata; } The problem is if I just access the object by casting the base class pointer returned from the framework to MyClass* the ctor for MyClass is never called and m_mydata is junk. Is there a way of only initializing the m_mydata pointer once?

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  • What is the best way to make versioned files available for download

    - by Saif Bechan
    I have a small PHP framework which I want to make available for download. It is located in a git repository. But the last version is not always the one that I want to make available for download. Is there some place I can make the versions available for download. Another thing about this framework is that I bring out additional components for the framework. These also have different versions. Is there somewhere where I can add the whole project, and people can browse trough everything and download what they need. Or should I make this myself?

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  • Ranged integers in .NET (or C#)

    - by Mal Ross
    Am I being blind, or does the .NET framework not provide any kind of ranged integer class? That is, a type that would prevent you setting a value outside some given bounds that are not the full range of the basic data type. For example, an integer type that would restrict its values to between 1 and 100. Showing my age here, but back in '93, I remember using that sort of thing in Modula-2 (eeek!), but I've not seen explicit framework / language support for it since. Am I just missing something, or is it a case of "it's so simple to make your own that the framework doesn't bother"? Cheers.

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  • Is it safe to unset PHP super-globals if this behavior is documented?

    - by Stephen
    I'm building a PHP framework, and in it I have a request object that parses the url as well as the $_GET, $_POST and $_FILE superglobals. I want to encourage safe web habits, so I'm protecting the data against SQL injection, etc. In order to ensure users of this framework are accessing the safe, clean data through the request object, I plan to use unset($_GET, $_POST, $_REQUEST); after parsing those variables. I will document this in the method comments, and explain in the framework documentation that this is happening. My question is: Would this be desirable behavior? What are the potential pitfalls that I have not foreseen?

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  • using special characters in functions: Python

    - by satyajit
    I am writing an xmlrpc client which uses a server written in ruby. One of the functions is framework.busy?(). Let me show the ruby version: server.call( "framework.busy?" ) So lets assume I create an instance of the ServerProxy class say server. So while using python to call the function busy? I need to use: server.framework.busy?() This leads to an error: SyntaxError: invalid syntax How can I call this function? Or am I reading the ruby code wrong and implementing it wrongly.

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  • C# similar technologies and books in Java

    - by MigNix
    Hi, I know this can look like dublicate of other discussions and I have already reviewed them, but they are different. I want to learn Java and I want to know are there any books similar to those that I have seen for C#. Here is the list: C# 4.0 in a Nutshell: The Definitive Reference Probably Java in a Nutshell :) Professional C# 4.0 and .NET 4 Pro C# 2010 and the .NET 4 Platform Accelerated C# 2010 Programming WCF Services Essential Windows Communication Foundation (WCF): For .NET Framework 3.5 C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3 CLR via C# Professional ADO.NET 3.5 with LINQ and the Entity Framework Professional Enterprise .NET Framework Design Guidelines: Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries Mainly I am interested in Java 6 and want to know about JVM , Cuncurency, Data access and distributed application technologies. I have seen there are some books on JVM like Inside the Java 2 Virtual Machine also some free books on official web site. Also I found concurrent programming in Java. But may be you can suggest any others. Thank you

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  • How to determine the date that Office 2003 was installed

    - by GalleySlave
    Is there any guaranteed way of determining the date that Office 2003 (and .Net Framework v2.0) were installed on a client computer? I am trying to nail down a problem which I think is due to the order that the .Net Framework and Office 2003 were installed in, so I need a way I can get a client to have a look at their machine (preferably the file system) and let me know. It may require admin privileges (or Registry etc) which wouldn't be a problem but not the preferred solution. It appears that the folders under Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11 have a number with the same date which at first sight appear to be an installation date / time. Likewise in Windows\Microsoft.Net\Framework\v2.0.50727 there are two with the same date, but this seems less certain. I could use WMI with a winmgmts:object and SELECT * FROM Win32_Product, but was wondering if there was a 'telephone' way to do it!

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  • Sources from referenced projects are not deployed to Tomcat in Eclipse

    - by Steven De Groote
    Hi, I have setup a dynamic web project in eclipse with JSF in which I trust on code from another project (framework). Therefore, I added the framework project to the build path of the website project. So far so good, Eclipse recognises every class and the project builds without errors. Problem is though that when I do "run on server" to test it on tomcat 6.0.24, the application fails. I get ClassNotFoundException on every class from the framework project. Is this a bug or is some specific configuration necessary for this?

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  • why a .net 1.1 code gets compiled in 2.0 and throws an error?

    - by Sanjeev
    Hi I have a web projects which is build in VS2003/1.1 framework and deployed in a webserver with IIS setting specified to 1.1 framework.lets say project X I also have another web project which is build with VS2008/2.0. IIS setting - ASP version 2.0 is selected and all pages are assigned to run with 2.0* dlls. Lets say project Y Now the problem seem to be when I hit project x, sometimes it throws errors like "error BC30456: 'Initialize Culture' is not a member of 'ASP.**" During troubleshooting this issue, I browsed through 2.0 Temporary ASP.Net files "C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\" and found temp files generated for project X. (HUH?) How/why 1.1 project gets compiled in 2.0 only when it errors out.( or we could put it this way that it errors out every time it gets compiled in 2.0 which it is not supposed to) I'm confused as to why this is happening when project X has nothing to do with .net 2.0.

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  • Where does ASP.NET Web API Fit?

    - by Rick Strahl
    With the pending release of ASP.NET MVC 4 and the new ASP.NET Web API, there has been a lot of discussion of where the new Web API technology fits in the ASP.NET Web stack. There are a lot of choices to build HTTP based applications available now on the stack - we've come a long way from when WebForms and Http Handlers/Modules where the only real options. Today we have WebForms, MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages, ASP.NET AJAX, WCF REST and now Web API as well as the core ASP.NET runtime to choose to build HTTP content with. Web API definitely squarely addresses the 'API' aspect - building consumable services - rather than HTML content, but even to that end there are a lot of choices you have today. So where does Web API fit, and when doesn't it? But before we get into that discussion, let's talk about what a Web API is and why we should care. What's a Web API? HTTP 'APIs' (Microsoft's new terminology for a service I guess)  are becoming increasingly more important with the rise of the many devices in use today. Most mobile devices like phones and tablets run Apps that are using data retrieved from the Web over HTTP. Desktop applications are also moving in this direction with more and more online content and synching moving into even traditional desktop applications. The pending Windows 8 release promises an app like platform for both the desktop and other devices, that also emphasizes consuming data from the Cloud. Likewise many Web browser hosted applications these days are relying on rich client functionality to create and manipulate the browser user interface, using AJAX rather than server generated HTML data to load up the user interface with data. These mobile or rich Web applications use their HTTP connection to return data rather than HTML markup in the form of JSON or XML typically. But an API can also serve other kinds of data, like images or other binary files, or even text data and HTML (although that's less common). A Web API is what feeds rich applications with data. ASP.NET Web API aims to service this particular segment of Web development by providing easy semantics to route and handle incoming requests and an easy to use platform to serve HTTP data in just about any content format you choose to create and serve from the server. But .NET already has various HTTP Platforms The .NET stack already includes a number of technologies that provide the ability to create HTTP service back ends, and it has done so since the very beginnings of the .NET platform. From raw HTTP Handlers and Modules in the core ASP.NET runtime, to high level platforms like ASP.NET MVC, Web Forms, ASP.NET AJAX and the WCF REST engine (which technically is not ASP.NET, but can integrate with it), you've always been able to handle just about any kind of HTTP request and response with ASP.NET. The beauty of the raw ASP.NET platform is that it provides you everything you need to build just about any type of HTTP application you can dream up from low level APIs/custom engines to high level HTML generation engine. ASP.NET as a core platform clearly has stood the test of time 10+ years later and all other frameworks like Web API are built on top of this ASP.NET core. However, although it's possible to create Web APIs / Services using any of the existing out of box .NET technologies, none of them have been a really nice fit for building arbitrary HTTP based APIs. Sure, you can use an HttpHandler to create just about anything, but you have to build a lot of plumbing to build something more complex like a comprehensive API that serves a variety of requests, handles multiple output formats and can easily pass data up to the server in a variety of ways. Likewise you can use ASP.NET MVC to handle routing and creating content in various formats fairly easily, but it doesn't provide a great way to automatically negotiate content types and serve various content formats directly (it's possible to do with some plumbing code of your own but not built in). Prior to Web API, Microsoft's main push for HTTP services has been WCF REST, which was always an awkward technology that had a severe personality conflict, not being clear on whether it wanted to be part of WCF or purely a separate technology. In the end it didn't do either WCF compatibility or WCF agnostic pure HTTP operation very well, which made for a very developer-unfriendly environment. Personally I didn't like any of the implementations at the time, so much so that I ended up building my own HTTP service engine (as part of the West Wind Web Toolkit), as have a few other third party tools that provided much better integration and ease of use. With the release of Web API for the first time I feel that I can finally use the tools in the box and not have to worry about creating and maintaining my own toolkit as Web API addresses just about all the features I implemented on my own and much more. ASP.NET Web API provides a better HTTP Experience ASP.NET Web API differentiates itself from the previous Microsoft in-box HTTP service solutions in that it was built from the ground up around the HTTP protocol and its messaging semantics. Unlike WCF REST or ASP.NET AJAX with ASMX, it’s a brand new platform rather than bolted on technology that is supposed to work in the context of an existing framework. The strength of the new ASP.NET Web API is that it combines the best features of the platforms that came before it, to provide a comprehensive and very usable HTTP platform. Because it's based on ASP.NET and borrows a lot of concepts from ASP.NET MVC, Web API should be immediately familiar and comfortable to most ASP.NET developers. Here are some of the features that Web API provides that I like: Strong Support for URL Routing to produce clean URLs using familiar MVC style routing semantics Content Negotiation based on Accept headers for request and response serialization Support for a host of supported output formats including JSON, XML, ATOM Strong default support for REST semantics but they are optional Easily extensible Formatter support to add new input/output types Deep support for more advanced HTTP features via HttpResponseMessage and HttpRequestMessage classes and strongly typed Enums to describe many HTTP operations Convention based design that drives you into doing the right thing for HTTP Services Very extensible, based on MVC like extensibility model of Formatters and Filters Self-hostable in non-Web applications  Testable using testing concepts similar to MVC Web API is meant to handle any kind of HTTP input and produce output and status codes using the full spectrum of HTTP functionality available in a straight forward and flexible manner. Looking at the list above you can see that a lot of functionality is very similar to ASP.NET MVC, so many ASP.NET developers should feel quite comfortable with the concepts of Web API. The Routing and core infrastructure of Web API are very similar to how MVC works providing many of the benefits of MVC, but with focus on HTTP access and manipulation in Controller methods rather than HTML generation in MVC. There’s much improved support for content negotiation based on HTTP Accept headers with the framework capable of detecting automatically what content the client is sending and requesting and serving the appropriate data format in return. This seems like such a little and obvious thing, but it's really important. Today's service backends often are used by multiple clients/applications and being able to choose the right data format for what fits best for the client is very important. While previous solutions were able to accomplish this using a variety of mixed features of WCF and ASP.NET, Web API combines all this functionality into a single robust server side HTTP framework that intrinsically understands the HTTP semantics and subtly drives you in the right direction for most operations. And when you need to customize or do something that is not built in, there are lots of hooks and overrides for most behaviors, and even many low level hook points that allow you to plug in custom functionality with relatively little effort. No Brainers for Web API There are a few scenarios that are a slam dunk for Web API. If your primary focus of an application or even a part of an application is some sort of API then Web API makes great sense. HTTP ServicesIf you're building a comprehensive HTTP API that is to be consumed over the Web, Web API is a perfect fit. You can isolate the logic in Web API and build your application as a service breaking out the logic into controllers as needed. Because the primary interface is the service there's no confusion of what should go where (MVC or API). Perfect fit. Primary AJAX BackendsIf you're building rich client Web applications that are relying heavily on AJAX callbacks to serve its data, Web API is also a slam dunk. Again because much if not most of the business logic will probably end up in your Web API service logic, there's no confusion over where logic should go and there's no duplication. In Single Page Applications (SPA), typically there's very little HTML based logic served other than bringing up a shell UI and then filling the data from the server with AJAX which means the business logic required for data retrieval and data acceptance and validation too lives in the Web API. Perfect fit. Generic HTTP EndpointsAnother good fit are generic HTTP endpoints that to serve data or handle 'utility' type functionality in typical Web applications. If you need to implement an image server, or an upload handler in the past I'd implement that as an HTTP handler. With Web API you now have a well defined place where you can implement these types of generic 'services' in a location that can easily add endpoints (via Controller methods) or separated out as more full featured APIs. Granted this could be done with MVC as well, but Web API seems a clearer and more well defined place to store generic application services. This is one thing I used to do a lot of in my own libraries and Web API addresses this nicely. Great fit. Mixed HTML and AJAX Applications: Not a clear Choice  For all the commonality that Web API and MVC share they are fundamentally different platforms that are independent of each other. A lot of people have asked when does it make sense to use MVC vs. Web API when you're dealing with typical Web application that creates HTML and also uses AJAX functionality for rich functionality. While it's easy to say that all 'service'/AJAX logic should go into a Web API and all HTML related generation into MVC, that can often result in a lot of code duplication. Also MVC supports JSON and XML result data fairly easily as well so there's some confusion where that 'trigger point' is of when you should switch to Web API vs. just implementing functionality as part of MVC controllers. Ultimately there's a tradeoff between isolation of functionality and duplication. A good rule of thumb I think works is that if a large chunk of the application's functionality serves data Web API is a good choice, but if you have a couple of small AJAX requests to serve data to a grid or autocomplete box it'd be overkill to separate out that logic into a separate Web API controller. Web API does add overhead to your application (it's yet another framework that sits on top of core ASP.NET) so it should be worth it .Keep in mind that MVC can generate HTML and JSON/XML and just about any other content easily and that functionality is not going away, so just because you Web API is there it doesn't mean you have to use it. Web API is not a full replacement for MVC obviously either since there's not the same level of support to feed HTML from Web API controllers (although you can host a RazorEngine easily enough if you really want to go that route) so if you're HTML is part of your API or application in general MVC is still a better choice either alone or in combination with Web API. I suspect (and hope) that in the future Web API's functionality will merge even closer with MVC so that you might even be able to mix functionality of both into single Controllers so that you don't have to make any trade offs, but at the moment that's not the case. Some Issues To think about Web API is similar to MVC but not the Same Although Web API looks a lot like MVC it's not the same and some common functionality of MVC behaves differently in Web API. For example, the way single POST variables are handled is different than MVC and doesn't lend itself particularly well to some AJAX scenarios with POST data. Code Duplication I already touched on this in the Mixed HTML and Web API section, but if you build an MVC application that also exposes a Web API it's quite likely that you end up duplicating a bunch of code and - potentially - infrastructure. You may have to create authentication logic both for an HTML application and for the Web API which might need something different altogether. More often than not though the same logic is used, and there's no easy way to share. If you implement an MVC ActionFilter and you want that same functionality in your Web API you'll end up creating the filter twice. AJAX Data or AJAX HTML On a recent post's comments, David made some really good points regarding the commonality of MVC and Web API's and its place. One comment that caught my eye was a little more generic, regarding data services vs. HTML services. David says: I see a lot of merit in the combination of Knockout.js, client side templates and view models, calling Web API for a responsive UI, but sometimes late at night that still leaves me wondering why I would no longer be using some of the nice tooling and features that have evolved in MVC ;-) You know what - I can totally relate to that. On the last Web based mobile app I worked on, we decided to serve HTML partials to the client via AJAX for many (but not all!) things, rather than sending down raw data to inject into the DOM on the client via templating or direct manipulation. While there are definitely more bytes on the wire, with this, the overhead ended up being actually fairly small if you keep the 'data' requests small and atomic. Performance was often made up by the lack of client side rendering of HTML. Server rendered HTML for AJAX templating gives so much better infrastructure support without having to screw around with 20 mismatched client libraries. Especially with MVC and partials it's pretty easy to break out your HTML logic into very small, atomic chunks, so it's actually easy to create small rendering islands that can be used via composition on the server, or via AJAX calls to small, tight partials that return HTML to the client. Although this is often frowned upon as to 'heavy', it worked really well in terms of developer effort as well as providing surprisingly good performance on devices. There's still plenty of jQuery and AJAX logic happening on the client but it's more manageable in small doses rather than trying to do the entire UI composition with JavaScript and/or 'not-quite-there-yet' template engines that are very difficult to debug. This is not an issue directly related to Web API of course, but something to think about especially for AJAX or SPA style applications. Summary Web API is a great new addition to the ASP.NET platform and it addresses a serious need for consolidation of a lot of half-baked HTTP service API technologies that came before it. Web API feels 'right', and hits the right combination of usability and flexibility at least for me and it's a good fit for true API scenarios. However, just because a new platform is available it doesn't meant that other tools or tech that came before it should be discarded or even upgraded to the new platform. There's nothing wrong with continuing to use MVC controller methods to handle API tasks if that's what your app is running now - there's very little to be gained by upgrading to Web API just because. But going forward Web API clearly is the way to go, when building HTTP data interfaces and it's good to see that Microsoft got this one right - it was sorely needed! Resources ASP.NET Web API AspConf Ask the Experts Session (first 5 minutes) © Rick Strahl, West Wind Technologies, 2005-2012Posted in Web Api   Tweet !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); (function() { var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true; po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s); })();

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