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Review
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Reviewed: November, 2009 |
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Reviewer:
Michael Duncan |
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Once you’ve read the first two chapters, you will find that REST concepts
are generally very simple, but for many .NET developers, myself included,
who have exclusively only worked with SOAP based .NET services (WCF and
services developed from WSDL documents), REST methodologies can be somewhat
confusing.
Jon Flanders has done an excellent job removing any ambiguities about
building and consuming RESTful services. REST concepts are explained and
contrasted to traditional SOAP concepts in the first two chapters with clear
dialog and a simple straight forward example. You will have a good
understanding of REST architectural concepts and will easily understand how
they correlate to the overall design of the web. You will also have an
understanding of why other developers who do not use .NET technologies are
such proponents of RESTful concepts (A.K.A. RESTafarians.)
In very short order, I found myself looking at resources from a different
perspective, a RESTful perspective, and excited about experimenting with the
examples provided in the book. I recommend that you visit the book’s website
provided in the Preface and download the sample code before you move into
and beyond the third chapter.
The remainder of the book after the first two introductory chapters answers
those more specific “How do you?” questions. The approach of using simple,
straight forward examples is applied throughout. After demonstrating basic
read-only (GET) and read/write services, more advanced topics are discussed
including, exposing feeds, using JSON, Ajax, Silverlight (1.0 & 2.0),
securing endpoints, and Workflow.
I found the chapter discussing methods for hosting WCF RESTful services,
including how to do so without using IIS, of particular interest. I had not
previously attempted self hosting prior to using the examples found in this
book and now I am intrigued about the potential applications.
The topic of how to consume RESTful XML services that may not have been
built with .NET is also discussed. Facing this task professionally, I was
very interested in this chapter. While it did not answer all my questions,
Jon’s discussion did put me on the right path and I have to acknowledge that
consuming such services is a difficult subject to write about.
The book ends with a discussion of how to effectively use some of the more
advanced HTTP constructs. Additional appendices are also provided regarding
ADO.NET and WCF 3.5 SP1. The book was started prior to the release of the
latter, so do not overlook that particular topic.
At 246 (content) pages, the book reads well on its own without becoming a
“Tome of Information.” Despite its relatively small size, it packs a lot of
information and the book will serve well as a reference for the future.
This is not a book for beginners, new to .NET and WCF. After reading it, I
feel that while this book is probably intended for an audience of
intermediate developers, even the most experienced developers will benefit
by reading this book. Developers who work in mixed environments, .NET & open
source, will find this book of particular interest. |
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