In this post, we will create a Web Api using ASP.NET Core. We will create a basic CRM API system that manages Customers.

The steps we will go through are:

1. Create an ASP.NET Core Project in Visual Studio
2. Get Customers
3. Add a Model
4. Publish to Azure
5. Azure Portal
6. Kudu

Let’s get started.

Create an ASP.NET Core Project in Visual Studio

Open Visual Studio and create a new ASP.NET Core Web Application:

Click Create:

Select API. We will go with No Authentication:

We see our project load:

If we run this by pressing F5, we see our default project load:

Let’s open the ValuesController.cs file. We see the default code:

Get Customers

Let’s add some code to return a list of customers and specific customer by adding to the HttpGet methods:

When we run this to get all customers, we see our customers returned:

Let’s test this out in Postman. Create a new Request:

Turn off SSL Certificate Validation:

Enter the URL for the Web Api – https://localhost:44336/api/values. We see our response:

Add a Model

Let’s add a model to hold our customers. Add a new class:

Called Customer.cs:

We see:

Add 3 properties – Id, FirstName, LastName:

Now let’s use this in our HttpGet methods. Add:

using Carl.CRM.API.Models;

Add the code to return a list of customers in a JSON formatted response. Note we are using JsonResult:

            Customer bob = new Customer { Id = 1, FirstName = "Bob", LastName = "Smith" };
            Customer david = new Customer { Id = 2, FirstName = "David", LastName = "Johnson" };
            Customer alice = new Customer { Id = 3, FirstName = "Alice", LastName = "Carter" };

            List<Customer> customers = new List<Customer>();
            customers.Add(bob);
            customers.Add(david);
            customers.Add(alice);

            return new JsonResult(customers);

Now let’s run this. We see we get our customers as a JSON response:

And to GET an individual customer:

Note we are using Ok and NotFound in the return:

            Customer bob = new Customer { Id = 1, FirstName = "Bob", LastName = "Smith" };
            Customer david = new Customer { Id = 2, FirstName = "David", LastName = "Johnson" };
            Customer alice = new Customer { Id = 3, FirstName = "Alice", LastName = "Carter" };

            if (id ==1)
            {
                return Ok(bob);
            }
            else
                if (id == 2)
            {
                return Ok(david);
            }
            else
                if (id == 3)
            {
                return Ok(alice);
            }
            else
            {
                return NotFound();
            }

When we run this, we get our customer returned:

And in Postman:

One final step. Let’s rename from Values to Customers in the ValuesController / CustomersController:

And in the launchSettings.json so when the project launches we will default to the correct new controller:

On running this, we get:

Publish to Azure

Now let’s publish this to Azure. Right click and select Publish to Azure:

Click Advanced:

Click Save:

Confirm the hosting plan:

We will select None to App Insights:

Once complete, this opens the new API at https://carlcrmapi.azurewebsites.net/

If we add api/customers, we get https://carlcrmapi.azurewebsites.net/api/customers with data returned:

Now let’s try this with Postman:

Azure Portal

Let’s look at what’s created in Azure.

First we have an App Service Plan:

And an App Service:

The App Service Configuration looks like below:

Let’s download the Publish Profile:

We get the file:

Let’s open this text file. We see a lot of interesting things, including:

• The publish URL – carlcrmapi.scm.azurewebsites.net:443, with a username and password
• App URL – https://carlcrmapi.azurewebsites.net
• FTP Publish URL

Let’s go to the publish URL carlcrmapi.scm.azurewebsites.net:443.

Kudu

The Kudu site has some useful information on the app hosting:

The Process Explorer shows w3wp.exe and w3wp.exe for SCM:

Browse to wwwroot. We see our Api assemblies:

We can run PowerShell, e.g. to see the IIS version:

get-itemproperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\InetStp\  | select setupstring,versionstring 

In the next post, we will add Azure API Management (APIM) to this API.

ABOUT CARL DE SOUZA

Carl de Souza is a developer and architect focusing on Microsoft Dynamics 365, Power BI, Azure, and AI.

carldesouza.com | LinkedIn | Twitter | YouTube

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