Consume ASP.Net Web API Via Windows Phone Using RestSharp

• Consume ASP.NET WEB API via Windows Phone using RestSharp
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Pre-requisite
• What services we will consume
• Let's Start Creation of a Sample Project
• Optional:Add support of HTTP client and JSON.NET
• Add Support of RestSharp for Windows Phone
• Create Layout:
  
  • Create Application Title
  • Calling a Web API
• Getting output
• Did you notice anything?
• Conclusion

Abstract

This article explains how to consume an ASP.NET WEB API using RestSharp for Windows Phone.

Introduction

This article explains how to consume an ASP.NET WEB API using RestSharp Windows Phone. We will create a simple demo application to use simple RestFul services, already developed.

We will not develop any services in this article although we will use the services already developed. We will not cover Windows Phone features in details, the only thing we will explain is the display and usage of JSON data/response from our APIs.

Prerequisites

We need the following to proceed with this article:

• Visual Studio 2013 or later with Windows Phone support (8.0 or later)
• Basic knowledge of Windows Phone
• Basic knowledge of ReSTFUL services
• Basic knowledge of ASP.NET WEB API; we will consume the Web API, although we are not developing the same but we should have basic knowledge about these.
• Any Rest Client; here we will use RestSharp for Windows Phone; there are other alternatives for use with a Microsoft HTTP Client to consume an ASP.NET WEB API
• Basic knowledge of JSON

What services we will consume

In this article we will use our earlier created ASP.NET WEB API hosted here: http://crudwithwebapi.azurewebsites.net/

We will try to discuss very simple resources in this article. The following are the resources of our Web API:



Let's Start Creation of a Sample Project

Use the following procedure to create a sample project:

• Start Visual Studio and select "File" -> "New" -> "Project..." (or enter Ctrl + Shift + N).
• From Installed templates Visual C# -> Store Apps -> Windows Phone Apps -> Blank App (Windows Phone)
  
  
  
  
• Provide a name to your new project, I called it ConsumeWebAPIInWindowsPhone to make it a self-explanatory name 
• Just a note, I checked Add to source control since I will make this a GitHub repository
• Now click on Ok
• We will get a blank Windows Phone APP
• Add the following XAML code to our MainPage.xaml file
• Add the following code to our MainPage.xaml.cs file
• Add a new class, ServerData.cs, under the Data Model folder and provide the following code:

Optional:Add support of HTTP client and JSON.NET

This section is optional and we are not using a HTTP client in our demo. If you are a fan of HTTP Clients then this section is for you, just read and make changes in your application accordingly.

We will consume ASP.NET Web APIs with a JSON response, so, we need both a HTTP client and JSON.NET (to serialize/deserialize our JSON data).

• Open Nuget Managerment console and type following command:

Alternatively, you can use Nuget Dialog Windows to add support for both of the following things:





Add the following snippet into MainPage.xaml.cs:

Add Support of RestSharp for Windows Phone

In this article, we will use RestSharp for Windows Phone, a ReST client. Let's add the same from Nuget:



Alternatively, type following command in Package Manager Console


Now, we are ready to write a simple code to call our Web API.

Create Layout

Let's make it very simple, so, add the following XAML code to the MainPage.xaml file:
In the preceding code, we are just creating a ListBox using ItemTample of two TextBlocks to display our data in a vertical direction.

Create Application Title

Just add the following lines before the preceding snippet to make a descent Title for our application:
Calling a Web API

To ensure we are calling our Web API, we need a method to make a call. We want to make this demo as simple as possible, so I am not considering any patterns and programming principles, if you want to extend please try to use some SOLID Programming Principles. To learn more about SOLID Principles read this article: SOLID Programing Principles.

To make a call, just add the following snippet into the MainPage.xaml.cs file: