How to build an ASP.NET Core 6 website that also contains a WebAPI?

Question

I'm new to ASP.NET Core 6, coming from a solid WebForms background.

In my searches, I'm finding many results demonstrating how to build an ASP.NET Core 6 website, and likewise many demonstrating how to build an ASP.NET Core 6 WebAPI. But I'm not finding anything showing how to do both in the same project, or even whether it's possible at all.

Given the terrible news of WCF's demise, we're relegated to using inferior replacements. gRPC fails the requirement, as it will run on only the very latest versions of IIS that support HTTP/2. It seems the only remaining alternative is WebAPI.

Is it possible to build an ASP.NET Core 6 website that also contains a WebAPI, similar in concept to the old in-website WCF service? If so, how is it done?

Some beginning guidance would be very helpful.

Answer 1

Hi @Jeff Bowman ,

How to build an ASP.NET Core 6 website that also contains a WebAPI?

If you are using Visual Studio 2022 to create the application, you can use the Asp.net core MVC template to create a MVC application:

Then, right click the Controller folder, and choose Add => Controller option:

In the popup window, you can choose the API controller:

Or, you can right click the Controllers folder, click Add => New Item... => select the API controller.

After running the application, the result like this:

You can also use JavaScript or Httpclient to access the API from the MVC view or controller.

Here are some basic tutorial about MVC and API, you can refer to them:

Create web APIs with ASP.NET Core

Get started with ASP.NET Core MVC

Tutorial: Call an ASP.NET Core web API with JavaScript

Make HTTP requests using IHttpClientFactory in ASP.NET Core.

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Best regards,
Dillion

Answer 2

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/architecture/porting-existing-aspnet-apps/webapi-differences

"In ASP.NET Core, there's no longer any distinction between MVC and Web APIs. There's only ASP.NET MVC, which includes support for view-based scenarios, API endpoints, and Razor Pages (and other variations like health checks and SignalR)." Starting from ASP.NET Core 1.0, a long while ago.

Answer 3

Thanks, I'll have a look.