API New Year

I'll get my coat :P

I am new to the concept of an API if I am honest. I am looking for a bit of guidance of how best to incorporate it into ASP.NET.

Starting with the basics. I have outlined below how I think it could work (excuse my ignorance if this is completely off track, I'm a beginner).

I want to create an API that allows clients to communicate with our site.

This is how we'd communicate.

Client --[XML]--> MySite
Client <--[XML]-- MySite

These would be sent by https.

Now at my end I was thinking of the following format.

1. A page say 'catch.vb' that accepts the https message. This page would extract the required info from the XML document then act upon it. If validation was required it would happen here.

Say the xml specified it wanted to performActionX. The required variables would then be passed on to 'performActionX.vb'.

2. performActionX.vb would then do the business based on the variables it accepted from 'catch.vb'. The results would then be passed onto a third page 'throw.vb'.

3. Throw.vb would insert the results into an xml document and send it to the client via https.

How does this sound? Again I must reiterate I am a newbie here so be gentle. Also would appreciate any response in layman's terms :thumb:

Thanks for reading

BB

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Originally Posted by billyblue

I am new to the concept of an API if I am honest.

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And what if you aren't honest? ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billyblue

I am looking for a bit of guidance of how best to incorporate it into ASP.NET.

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Umm... you don't...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by billyblue

Starting with the basics. I have outlined below how I think it could work (excuse my ignorance if this is completely off track, I'm a beginner).

I want to create an API that allows clients to communicate with our site.

This is how we'd communicate.

Client --[XML]--> MySite
Client <--[XML]-- MySite

These would be sent by https.

Now at my end I was thinking of the following format.

1. A page say 'catch.vb' that accepts the https message. This page would extract the required info from the XML document then act upon it. If validation was required it would happen here.

Say the xml specified it wanted to performActionX. The required variables would then be passed on to 'performActionX.vb'.

2. performActionX.vb would then do the business based on the variables it accepted from 'catch.vb'. The results would then be passed onto a third page 'throw.vb'.

3. Throw.vb would insert the results into an xml document and send it to the client via https.

How does this sound? Again I must reiterate I am a newbie here so be gentle. Also would appreciate any response in layman's terms :thumb:

Thanks for reading

BB

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AH, OK... API is NOT what you want. API is Windows based, not browser based. What you want to look for are Web Services... allows remote objects to be created and used over the web using XML, SOAP, and HTHP(S). APIs won't work in this case.

-tg

Ah COM on, that was a pretty good pun. :afrog:


There's a list of ASP.NET tutorials at the top of this forum. One of them is a tutorial on web services. Creating web services is as easy as you think it is.

Post back if you have any more questions, don't worry about being new. We all have to start somewhere.

Thanks guys. I will have a look at those tutorials and probably get back to you. Thanks for reading.