AspNetCore.Docs/aspnetcore/tutorials/first-web-api.md

title	author	description	manager	ms.author	ms.custom	ms.date	ms.prod	ms.technology	ms.topic	uid
Create a Web API with ASP.NET Core and Visual Studio for Windows	rick-anderson	Build a web API with ASP.NET Core MVC and Visual Studio for Windows	wpickett	riande	mvc	05/17/2018	asp.net-core	aspnet	get-started-article	tutorials/first-web-api

Create a Web API with ASP.NET Core and Visual Studio for Windows

By Rick Anderson and Mike Wasson

This tutorial builds a web API for managing a list of "to-do" items. A user interface (UI) isn't created.

There are three versions of this tutorial:

• Windows: Web API with Visual Studio for Windows (This tutorial)
• macOS: Web API with Visual Studio for Mac
• macOS, Linux, Windows: Web API with Visual Studio Code

[!INCLUDEintro to web API]

Prerequisites

[!INCLUDE]

Create the project

Follow these steps in Visual Studio:

• From the File menu, select New > Project.
• Select the ASP.NET Core Web Application template. Name the project TodoApi and click OK.
• In the New ASP.NET Core Web Application - TodoApi dialog, choose the ASP.NET Core version. Select the API template and click OK. Do not select Enable Docker Support.

Launch the app

In Visual Studio, press CTRL+F5 to launch the app. Visual Studio launches a browser and navigates to http://localhost:<port>/api/values, where <port> is a randomly chosen port number. Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox display the following output:

["value1","value2"]

If using Internet Explorer, you'll be prompted to save a values.json file.

Add a model class

A model is an object representing the data in the app. In this case, the only model is a to-do item.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the project. Select Add > New Folder. Name the folder Models.

[!NOTE] The model classes can go anywhere in the project. The Models folder is used by convention for model classes.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the Models folder and select Add > Class. Name the class TodoItem and click Add.

Update the TodoItem class with the following code:

[!code-csharp]

The database generates the Id when a TodoItem is created.

Create the database context

The database context is the main class that coordinates Entity Framework functionality for a given data model. This class is created by deriving from the Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.DbContext class.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the Models folder and select Add > Class. Name the class TodoContext and click Add.

Replace the class with the following code:

[!code-csharp]

[!INCLUDERegister the database context]

Add a controller

In Solution Explorer, right-click the Controllers folder. Select Add > New Item. In the Add New Item dialog, select the API Controller Class template. Name the class TodoController, and click Add.

Replace the class with the following code:

[!INCLUDEcode and get todo items]

Launch the app

In Visual Studio, press CTRL+F5 to launch the app. Visual Studio launches a browser and navigates to http://localhost:<port>/api/values, where <port> is a randomly chosen port number. Navigate to the Todo controller at http://localhost:<port>/api/todo.

[!INCLUDElast part of web API]

[!INCLUDEjQuery]

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