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title | author | description | ms.author | ms.custom | ms.date | uid |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Migrate from ASP.NET Web API to ASP.NET Core | ardalis | Learn how to migrate a web API implementation from ASP.NET 4.x Web API to ASP.NET Core MVC. | wpickett | mvc | 01/31/2022 | migration/webapi |
Migrate from ASP.NET Web API to ASP.NET Core
ASP.NET Core combines ASP.NET 4.x's MVC and Web API app models into a single programming model known as ASP.NET Core MVC.
:::moniker range=">= aspnetcore-6.0" This article shows how to migrate the Products controller created in Getting Started with ASP.NET Web API 2 to ASP.NET Core.
Prerequisites
Visual Studio
Visual Studio Code
Create the new ASP.NET Core Web API project
Visual Studio
- From the File menu, select New > Project.
- Enter Web API in the search box.
- Select the ASP.NET Core Web API template and select Next.
- In the Configure your new project dialog, name the project ProductsCore and select Next.
- In the Additional information dialog:
- Confirm the Framework is .NET 6.0 (Long-term support).
- Confirm the checkbox for Use controllers(uncheck to use minimal APIs) is checked.
- Uncheck Enable OpenAPI support.
- Select Create.
Visual Studio Code
-
Open the integrated terminal.
-
Change directories (
cd
) to the folder that will contain the project folder. -
Run the following commands to create a new web API project and open it in Visual Studio Code:
dotnet new webapi -o ProductsCore --no-openapi cd ProductsCore code -r ../ProductsCore
Remove the WeatherForecast template files
- Remove the
WeatherForecast.cs
andControllers/WeatherForecastController.cs
example files from the new ProductsCore project. - Open Properties\launchSettings.json.
- Change
launchUrl
properties fromweatherforcast
toproductscore
.
The configuration for ASP.NET Core Web API
ASP.NET Core doesn't use the App_Start folder or the Global.asax file. The web.config file is added at publish time. For more information, see xref:host-and-deploy/iis/web-config.
The Program.cs
file:
- Replaces Global.asax.
- Handles all app startup tasks.
For more information, see xref:fundamentals/startup.
The following shows the application startup code in the ASP.NET Core Program.cs
file:
Copy the Product model
Visual Studio
- In Solution Explorer, right-click the project. Select Add > New Folder. Name the folder Models.
- Right-click the Models folder. Select Add > Class. Name the class Product and select Add.
- Replace the template model code with the following:
Visual Studio Code
- Add a folder named Models.
- Add a Product class to the Models folder with the following code:
The preceding highlighted code changes the following:
- The
?
annotation has been added to declare theName
andCategory
properties as nullable reference types.
By utilizing the Nullable feature introduced in C# 8, ASP.NET Core can provide additional code flow analysis and compile-time safety in the handling of reference types. For example, protecting against null
reference exceptions.
In this case, the intent is that the Name
and Category
can be nullable types.
ASP.NET Core 6.0 projects enable nullable reference types by default. For more information, see Nullable reference types.
Copy the ProductsController
Visual Studio
- Right-click the Controllers folder.
- Select Add > Controller....
- In Add New Scaffolded Item dialog, select Mvc Controller - Empty then select Add.
- Name the controller ProductsController and select Add.
- Replace the template controller code with the following:
Visual Studio Code
- Add a ProductsController class to the Controllers folder with the following code:
The preceding highlighted code changes the following, to migrate to ASP.NET Core:
-
Removes using statements for the following ASP.NET 4.x components that don't exist in ASP.NET Core:
ApiController
classSystem.Web.Http
namespaceIHttpActionResult
interface
-
Changes the
using ProductsApp.Models;
statement tousing ProductsCore.Models;
. -
Sets the root namespace to
ProductsCore
. -
Changes
ApiController
to xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase. -
Adds
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
to resolve theControllerBase
reference. -
Changes the
GetProduct
action's return type fromIHttpActionResult
toActionResult<Product>
. For more info, see Controller action return types. -
Simplifies the
GetProduct
action'sreturn
statement to the following statement:return product;
-
Adds the following attributes which are explained in the next sections:
[Route("api/[controller]")]
[ApiController]
[HttpGet]
[HttpGet("{id}")]
Routing
ASP.NET Core provides a minimal hosting model in which the endpoint routing middleware wraps the entire middleware pipeline, therefore routes can be added directly to the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.WebApplication without an explicit call to xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.EndpointRoutingApplicationBuilderExtensions.UseEndpoints%2A or xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.EndpointRoutingApplicationBuilderExtensions.UseRouting%2A to register routes.
UseRouting
can still be used to specify where route matching happens, but UseRouting
doesn't need to be explicitly called if routes should be matched at the beginning of the middleware pipeline.
Note: Routes added directly to the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.WebApplication execute at the end of the pipeline.
Routing in the migrated ProductsController
The migrated ProductsController
contains the following highlighted attributes:
-
The
[Route]
attribute configures the controller's attribute routing pattern. -
The
[ApiController]
attribute makes attribute routing a requirement for all actions in this controller. -
Attribute routing supports tokens, such as
[controller]
and[action]
. At runtime, each token is replaced with the name of the controller or action, respectively, to which the attribute has been applied. The tokens:- Reduces or eliminates the need to use hard coded strings for the route.
- Ensure routes remain synchronized with the corresponding controllers and actions when automatic rename refactorings are applied.
-
HTTP Get requests are enabled for
ProductController
actions with the following attributes:[HttpGet]
attribute applied to theGetAllProducts
action.[HttpGet("{id}")]
attribute applied to theGetProduct
action.
Run the migrated project, and browse to /api/products
. For example: https://localhost:<port>
/api/products. A full list of three products appears. Browse to /api/products/1
. The first product appears.
View or download sample code (how to download)
Additional resources
:::moniker-end
:::moniker range="< aspnetcore-6.0" This article demonstrates the steps required to migrate from ASP.NET 4.x Web API to ASP.NET Core MVC.
View or download sample code (how to download)
Prerequisites
[!INCLUDE prerequisites]
Review ASP.NET 4.x Web API project
This article uses the ProductsApp project created in Getting Started with ASP.NET Web API 2. In that project, a basic ASP.NET 4.x Web API project is configured as follows.
In Global.asax.cs
, a call is made to WebApiConfig.Register
:
The WebApiConfig
class is found in the App_Start folder and has a static Register
method:
The preceding class:
- Configures attribute routing, although it's not actually being used.
- Configures the routing table.
The sample code expects URLs to match the format
/api/{controller}/{id}
, with{id}
being optional.
The following sections demonstrate migration of the Web API project to ASP.NET Core MVC.
Create the destination project
Create a new blank solution in Visual Studio and add the ASP.NET 4.x Web API project to migrate:
- From the File menu, select New > Project.
- Select the Blank Solution template and select Next.
- Name the solution WebAPIMigration. Select Create.
- Add the existing ProductsApp project to the solution.
Add a new API project to migrate to:
- Add a new ASP.NET Core Web Application project to the solution.
- In the Configure your new project dialog, Name the project ProductsCore, and select Create.
- In the Create a new ASP.NET Core Web Application dialog, confirm that .NET Core and ASP.NET Core 3.1 are selected. Select the API project template, and select Create.
- Remove the
WeatherForecast.cs
andControllers/WeatherForecastController.cs
example files from the new ProductsCore project.
The solution now contains two projects. The following sections explain migrating the ProductsApp project's contents to the ProductsCore project.
Migrate configuration
ASP.NET Core doesn't use the App_Start folder or the Global.asax file. Additionally, the web.config file is added at publish time.
The Startup
class:
- Replaces Global.asax.
- Handles all app startup tasks.
For more information, see xref:fundamentals/startup.
Migrate models and controllers
The following code shows the ProductsController
to be updated for ASP.NET Core:
Update the ProductsController
for ASP.NET Core:
- Copy
Controllers/ProductsController.cs
and the Models folder from the original project to the new one. - Change the copied files' root namespace to
ProductsCore
. - Update the
using ProductsApp.Models;
statement tousing ProductsCore.Models;
.
The following components don't exist in ASP.NET Core:
ApiController
classSystem.Web.Http
namespaceIHttpActionResult
interface
Make the following changes:
-
Change
ApiController
to xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase. Addusing Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
to resolve theControllerBase
reference. -
Delete
using System.Web.Http;
. -
Change the
GetProduct
action's return type fromIHttpActionResult
toActionResult<Product>
. -
Simplify the
GetProduct
action'sreturn
statement to the following:return product;
Configure routing
The ASP.NET Core API project template includes endpoint routing configuration in the generated code.
The following xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.EndpointRoutingApplicationBuilderExtensions.UseRouting%2A and xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Builder.EndpointRoutingApplicationBuilderExtensions.UseEndpoints%2A calls:
- Register route matching and endpoint execution in the middleware pipeline.
- Replace the ProductsApp project's
App_Start/WebApiConfig.cs
file.
Configure routing as follows:
-
Mark the
ProductsController
class with the following attributes:[Route("api/[controller]")] [ApiController]
The preceding
[Route]
attribute configures the controller's attribute routing pattern. The[ApiController]
attribute makes attribute routing a requirement for all actions in this controller.Attribute routing supports tokens, such as
[controller]
and[action]
. At runtime, each token is replaced with the name of the controller or action, respectively, to which the attribute has been applied. The tokens:- Reduce the number of magic strings in the project.
- Ensure routes remain synchronized with the corresponding controllers and actions when automatic rename refactorings are applied.
-
Enable HTTP Get requests to the
ProductsController
actions:- Apply the
[HttpGet]
attribute to theGetAllProducts
action. - Apply the
[HttpGet("{id}")]
attribute to theGetProduct
action.
- Apply the
Run the migrated project, and browse to /api/products
. A full list of three products appears. Browse to /api/products/1
. The first product appears.