Minimal APIs in C# introduced in ASP.NET Core 6.0 enable developers to create lightweight HTTP services with a simplified syntax, eliminating the need for traditional controller classes. Key features include convention-based routing, the use of delegates for endpoint handlers, and reduced boilerplate code, making it easier for new developers to learn. The document provides examples of defining minimal APIs for Employee and Customer controllers, as well as integrating Dapper for database operations.
Minimal APIs in C# introduced in ASP.NET Core 6.0 enable developers to create lightweight HTTP services with a simplified syntax, eliminating the need for traditional controller classes. Key features include convention-based routing, the use of delegates for endpoint handlers, and reduced boilerplate code, making it easier for new developers to learn. The document provides examples of defining minimal APIs for Employee and Customer controllers, as well as integrating Dapper for database operations.
Minimal APIs in C# introduced in ASP.NET Core 6.0 enable developers to create lightweight HTTP services with a simplified syntax, eliminating the need for traditional controller classes. Key features include convention-based routing, the use of delegates for endpoint handlers, and reduced boilerplate code, making it easier for new developers to learn. The document provides examples of defining minimal APIs for Employee and Customer controllers, as well as integrating Dapper for database operations.
Minimal APIs in C# introduced in ASP.NET Core 6.0 enable developers to create lightweight HTTP services with a simplified syntax, eliminating the need for traditional controller classes. Key features include convention-based routing, the use of delegates for endpoint handlers, and reduced boilerplate code, making it easier for new developers to learn. The document provides examples of defining minimal APIs for Employee and Customer controllers, as well as integrating Dapper for database operations.
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Minimal APIs in C# are a feature introduced in ASP.NET Core 6.
0 that allows developers to create lightweight, self-contained HTTP services with minimal ceremony. It provides a simpler and more concise syntax for defining endpoints compared to traditional ASP.NET Core MVC controllers.
### Key Features of Minimal APIs:
1. **Lightweight Syntax**: Minimal APIs use a simplified syntax that requires
fewer lines of code compared to traditional MVC controllers, making them ideal for small or simple HTTP services.
2. **No Controller Classes**: With minimal APIs, you don't need to define controller classes. Instead, you define routes and handlers directly within the application's startup code.
3. **Convention-based Routing**: Minimal APIs use convention-based
routing, which means that routes are defined based on HTTP methods and URL patterns.
4. **Use of Delegates**: Handlers for HTTP endpoints are defined using C#
lambda expressions or delegate methods, allowing for a more concise and expressive syntax.
### Example of Minimal API:
Here's an example of a minimal API defined in a C# application's startup
code:
```csharp
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();
app.MapGet("/hello", () => "Hello, World!");
app.Run();
```
In this example:
- `WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args)` creates a builder object for
configuring the application.
- `app.MapGet("/hello", () => "Hello, World!")` defines a route for handling
HTTP GET requests to the "/hello" endpoint. The lambda expression `() => "Hello, World!"` serves as the handler for the endpoint, returning a string response.
- `app.Run()` starts the application and begins listening for incoming HTTP requests.
### Benefits of Minimal APIs:
- **Simplicity**: Minimal APIs offer a simpler and more lightweight alternative
to traditional MVC controllers, reducing the overhead associated with defining and configuring controllers and actions.
- **Reduced Boilerplate**: With minimal APIs, there's less boilerplate code to
write and maintain, resulting in cleaner and more concise codebases.
- **Fast Startup**: Minimal APIs contribute to faster application startup times
since there's less overhead involved in initializing controllers and middleware components. - **Ease of Learning**: Minimal APIs are easier to learn and understand for developers who are new to ASP.NET Core or web development in general, as they require fewer concepts and conventions to grasp.
Overall, minimal APIs provide a streamlined and efficient way to build HTTP services in C# with ASP.NET Core, particularly for small-scale projects or microservices where simplicity and speed of development are paramount.
In ASP.NET Core 6.0, you can implement minimal APIs for Employee and Customer controllers using a simplified syntax. Below is an example of how you can define minimal APIs for both controllers:
```csharp
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();
// Define routes for Employee Controller
app.MapGet("/employees", () => "Get all employees");
app.MapGet("/employees/{id}", (int id) => $"Get employee with ID: {id}");
app.MapPost("/employees", () => "Create new employee");
app.MapPut("/employees/{id}", (int id) => $"Update employee with ID:
{id}");
app.MapDelete("/employees/{id}", (int id) => $"Delete employee with ID:
{id}");
// Define routes for Customer Controller
app.MapGet("/customers", () => "Get all customers");
app.MapGet("/customers/{id}", (int id) => $"Get customer with ID: {id}");
app.MapPost("/customers", () => "Create new customer");
app.MapPut("/customers/{id}", (int id) => $"Update customer with ID:
{id}");
app.MapDelete("/customers/{id}", (int id) => $"Delete customer with ID:
{id}");
app.Run();
```
In this example:
- For the Employee controller, routes for GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE operations are defined for the endpoints "/employees" and "/employees/{id}".
- Similarly, for the Customer controller, routes for GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE operations are defined for the endpoints "/customers" and "/customers/{id}".
Each route is associated with a lambda expression that handles the
corresponding HTTP request. The parameters in the lambda expressions (e.g., `(int id)`) represent route parameters that can be extracted from the request URL.
This is a basic example to illustrate how you can implement minimal APIs for two controllers. You can extend this example to include more complex logic, such as interacting with databases or external services, validating input data, or implementing authentication and authorization.
Sure, here's a sample minimal API using Dapper to fetch data from an Employee table in a SQL database:
var employees = await dbConnection.QueryAsync<Employee>("SELECT *
FROM Employees");
return Results.Ok(employees);
});
app.Run(); public class Employee
public int Id { get; set; }
public string Name { get; set; }
public string Department { get; set; }
```
In this example:
1. We register `IDbConnection` with dependency injection, providing a
`SqlConnection` instance using the connection string from the application settings.
2. We define a route for GET requests to "/employees". Inside the route
handler, we use Dapper's `QueryAsync` method to execute a SQL query and retrieve all employees from the database. The result is returned as JSON.
3. We define a simple `Employee` class to represent the structure of
employee data retrieved from the database.
Ensure you have the required NuGet packages installed for Dapper and your database provider (e.g., Microsoft.Data.SqlClient for SQL Server). Also, don't forget to replace `"DefaultConnection"` with the name of your connection string in the appsettings.json or appsettings.Development.json file.
This minimal API fetches all employee data from the Employees table in response to GET requests to "/employees". You can further expand this API to handle other CRUD operations, error handling, pagination, filtering, or sorting as needed.
