RESTful Services with ASP.NET MVC and XHTML

 

There are several reasons to consider using XHTML as the default representation for your ASP.NET MVC RESTful services. First, you can leverage the syntax and semantics for important elements like <a>, <form>, and <input> instead of inventing your own. Second, you’ll end up with services that feel a lot like sites because they’ll be browsable by both users and applications. The XHTML is still interpreted by a human—it’s just a programmer during development instead of a user at runtime. This simplifies things throughout the development process and makes it easier for consumers to learn how your service works. And finally, you can leverage standard Web development frameworks to build your RESTful services.

ASP.NET MVC is one such framework that provides an inherently RESTful model for building XHTML-based services. This article walks through some XHTML design concepts and then shows you how to build a complete XHTML-based RESTful service.

Contents

XHTML: Representing Data and Links
XHTML: Representing Input with Forms
Understanding the ASP.NET MVC Architecture
Implementing the Model
Implementing the Controller
Designing URIs with Routes
Implementing the Views
Consuming the Bookmark Service
Acknowledgments

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