Load Data From Database Using Web API

We will use Visual Studio 2015 to create a Web API and perform the operations. In this project we are going to create a database and a table called tbl_Subcribers which actually contains a list of data. We will use our normal jQuery ajax to call the Web API, once the data is ready we will format the same in an html table. I hope you will like this.

What is a Web API

A Web API is a kind of framework which makes building HTTP services easier than ever. It can be used almost everywhere including wide range of clients, mobile devices, browsers, etc. It contains normal MVC features such as Model, Controller, Actions, Routing, etc. Support all HTTP verbs like POST, GET, DELETE, PUT.



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Using the code

We will create our project in Visual Studio 2015. To create a project click File, New, then Project.

Create a control

Now we will create a control in our project.



Select Empty API Controller as template.



As you can notice we have selected Empty API Controller instead of selecting a normal controller. There are few difference between our normal controller and Empty API Controller.

Controller Vs Empty API Controller

A controller normally render your views. But an API controller returns the data which is already serialized. A controller action returns JSON() by converting the data. You can get rid of this by using API controller.

Find out more: Controller VS API Controller.

Create a model

As you all know, we write logic in a class called model in MVC. So next step what we need to do is creating a model.

Right click on Model and click Add new Items and then class. Name it Subscribers. We are going to handle the subscriber list who all are subscribed to your website.

Now we will create a Database to our application.

Create Database



Once you created the database, you can see your database in App_Data folder.



Now will add a new table to our database.



You can see the query to create a table below.

It seems our database is ready now.



The next thing we need to do is to create an ADO.NET Entity Data Model. So shall we do that? Right click on your model and click on add new item, in the upcoming dialogue, select ADO.NET Entity Data Model and name that file. Here I have given the name as SP. And in the next steps select the tables, stored procedures, and views you want.



So a new file will be created in your model folder.

Now we will create an ajax call so that you can call the web API. We will use normal Ajax with type GET since we need to just retrieve the data.

A web API control does not return any action result or any json result, so we need to manually do this. We will use the index.cshtml file as our view. We are going to call our web API as follows from the view Index.cshtml.