Building and Securing RESTful APIs in ASP.NET Core

Learn how to build fast and secure RESTful APIs with ASP.NET Core.

Introduction

• The power of RESTful APIs
• What you should know
• Example API introduction

1. REST API Concepts

• What is REST?
• REST vs. RPC
• Self-documentation and HATEOAS
• HTTP methods
• Full and partial updates
• Returning JSON
• The Ion hypermedia type

2. Build a Basic API

• Create a new project
• Configure MVC
• Create a root controller
• Test with Postman
• Route to controllers with templates
• Introduction to OpenAPI
• Add NSwag to the project

3. Versioning and Errors

• Approaches to API versioning
• Add versioning support
• Serialize exceptions as JSON

4. Secure the API

• Transport security in ASP.NET Core
• Require HTTPS
• Test HTTPS locally
• How CORS works
• Add CORS middleware

5. Represent Resources

• Create a resource class
• Load data from configuration
• Return data from a controller
• Set up an in-memory database
• Create data model classes
• Seed the database with test data
• Return a resource from a controller
• Move data access to a service
• Map models automatically

6. Represent Links

• Create a Link class
• Rewrite Links with a filter
• Rewrite resource HREFs

7. Represent Collections

• Create a Collection class
• Return all resources in a collection
• Add pagination
• Paging defaults and validation
• Add navigation to paged collections

8. Sorting Collections

• Design collection sort
• Add sort attributes
• Validate sort parameters
• Build sort expressions dynamically
• Add a default sort term

9. Searching Collections

• Design collection search
• Add search attributes
• Validate search parameters
• Build search expressions dynamically
• Extend search to other types
• Add comparison operators

10. Forms and Modifying Data

• Forms in Ion
• Create a POST action
• Delete a resource
• Serialize the form metadata
• Discoverable queries using forms

11. Caching and Compression

• Compress responses
• How HTTP caching works
• Add the Cache-Control header
• Support the ETag header
• Add server-side caching

12. Authentication and Authorization

• How HTTP authentication works
• Authentication for REST APIs
• Add Identity
• Add a test user
• Create a users collection
• Create a registration route
• Add OpenIddict
• Add a token endpoint
• Create a UserInfo route
• More about OpenID Connect
• Authorization using policies

Conclusion

• Next steps