RESTful .NET is the first book that teaches Windows developers to build RESTful web services using the latest Microsoft tools. Written by Windows Communication Foundation (WFC) expert Jon Flanders, this hands-on tutorial demonstrates how you can use WCF and other components of the .NET 3.5 Framework to build, deploy and use REST-based web services in a variety of application scenarios. RESTful architecture offers a simpler approach to building web services than SOAP, SOA, and the cumbersome WS-* stack. And WCF has proven to be a flexible technology for building distributed systems not necessarily tied to WS-* standards. RESTful .NET provides you with a complete guide to the WCF REST programming model for building web services consumed either by machines or humans. You'll learn how to:

• Program Read-Only (GET) services

• Program READ/WRITE services

• Host REST services

• Program REST feeds

• Program AJAX REST clients

• Secure REST endpoints

• Use workflow to deliver REST services

• Consume RESTful XML services using WCF

• Work with HTTP

• Work with ADO.NET Data Services (Astoria)

RESTful .NET introduces you to the ideas of REST and RESTful architecture, and includes a detailed discussion of how the Web/REST model plugs into the WCF architecture. If you develop with .NET, it's time to jump on the RESTful bandwagon. This book explains how. "While REST is simple, WCF is not. To really understand and exploit this part of WCF requires a knowledgeable and experienced guide. I don't know anybody who's better suited for this role than Jon Flanders. ...Jon is first-rate at explaining complicated things. This book is the best introduction I've seen to creating and using these services with WCF." --David Chappell, Chappell & Associates

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 9 Ratings

Concise, clear and lean - 2009-01-24
Reviewer Rating:
There are two things I really liked about Flanders' book:

(1) It has a gradual progression from concept to implementation that is both easy to read and very structured. It made the whole book very valuable. The initial section on REST is concise and either enlightening or revision, depending on what you already know. The transition to WCF programming is just as smooth.

(2) It zeroes in on the essentials and provides very lean tutorials on the meat of implementing RESTful services. This is key because WCF as a technology is fairly dense and sprawling. Flanders starts with a quick tutorial of non-SOAP based web programming using WCF. And he covers both server side API implementation and client side consumption of the same.

RESTful .NET's biggest strength is that it is concise, clear and lean. To that point, you need the basics of HTTP, SOAP, WCF, XML, C# and (briefly) ASP in place.

Well written; however, bad example code and too little focus on the client - 2009-10-15
Reviewer Rating:
I like the way the author writes; however, I have a few problems with the book as a whole:
- The example code is a mess. It's badly formatted and a lot of just doesn't work. If you don't believe me, download it yourself before buying the book: [...]
- There is just not enough focus on the client (the book contains 11 chapters and chapter 10 is client code). However, the example must have been an academic exercise for the author who focused on SSDS rather than a simpler example. He would have been better off sticking to his example code and focusing more on security from the client's perceptive.

Not the full picture regarding REST - 2009-09-20
Reviewer Rating:
The idea of a book on RESTful WCF was very sound but it faced a few problems the main one being that the REST support in WCF isn't great. Key aspects of REST just aren't handled by WCF and unfortunately this book glosses over these issues which is a pity because key aspects of REST don't get mentioned.

I would thus recommend that in addition to this book you should look at getting a good understanding of other aspects of REST including HATEOAS. Luckily OReilly already have RESTful Web Services which to some extent covers these topics, and more general REST issues, and they also have a couple of other excellent REST books coming out soon.

EXCELLENT reference, even if not what I expected - 2009-06-01
Reviewer Rating:
I started reading this book after finishing Data-Driven Services with Silverlight 2 so I was already somewhat familiar with the basic principles of REST services in .NET but wanted more details about the inner workings of REST and specifically the details of configuration within IIS and web.config. Well, this book definitely covers the inner workings of REST within WCF VERY throroughly, but in my opinion, the approach was kind of counter-intuitive. He begins by providing command line examples, and perhaps it is due to my overall lack of experience with WCF, but I couldnt identify with the implementation of such an example, and the details of the web.config setup were only cursorily mentioned--everything was created in code. So, my exact goal was not fully acheived, however, the advantages of this book as a reference greatly outweigh that single disadvantage. The author delves quite deeply into an explanation of behaviors, endpoints, serialization, deserialization, and the URI template syntax -- which basically are the key aspects of REST in WCF.NET. Even without a background in WCF, this book gets you up to speed very quickly.

Easy read and nice work - 2009-04-03
Reviewer Rating:
This is the only book you need if you are building new web services or exposing existing one in REST style. Right on time and money. I have not seen any comparable book which talk about REST support for WCF in that depth.

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