Building Production-Ready ASP.NET Core Web APIs

A Practical Guide from Fundamentals to Advanced Techniques

Introduction

1. What This Book Is About
2. How This Book Is Structured
3. What You Should Know Before Reading
4. How to Use the Code Examples
5. The Running Example Project
6. What This Book Does Not Cover
7. A Note on Best Practices

Chapter 1: Getting Started with ASP.NET Core Web API

1. Prerequisites and Development Setup
2. Creating Your First Web API Project
3. Anatomy of the Program File
4. Understanding appsettings.json and Configuration Basics
5. Running and Testing Your First Endpoint
6. Creating Your First Real Endpoint
7. Common Mistakes and Troubleshooting
8. Summary

Chapter 2: The Request Pipeline and Middleware

1. How the Request Pipeline Works
2. Built-in Middleware Components
3. Ordering Matters: Middleware Sequence
4. Writing Custom Middleware
5. Error Handling Middleware and Short-Circuiting
6. Summary

Chapter 3: Routing, HTTP Methods, and Status Codes

1. Conventional vs Attribute Routing
2. Route Templates and Parameters
3. RESTful HTTP Methods (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, DELETE)
4. Choosing the Right Status Code
5. Response Formats and Content Negotiation Basics
6. Summary

Chapter 4: Controllers and Minimal APIs

1. Controller-Based Endpoints
2. Minimal API Endpoints
3. Comparing Controllers vs Minimal APIs
4. Mixing Both Approaches in One Project
5. Organizing Large Numbers of Endpoints
6. Summary

Chapter 5: Dependency Injection and Configuration

1. The Service Container and Lifetimes (Transient, Scoped, Singleton)
2. Registering Services and Resolving Dependencies
3. Configuration Sources and Hierarchy
4. Strongly-Typed Configuration with Options Pattern
5. Common DI Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
6. Summary

Chapter 6: Model Binding, Validation, and DTOs

1. Model Binding from Request Data
2. Data Annotations and Built-in Validation
3. Custom Validation with FluentValidation
4. Designing Effective DTOs
5. Mapping Between Entities and DTOs
6. Summary

Chapter 7: JSON Serialization and Response Formatting

1. System.Text.Json Configuration
2. Naming Policies and Custom Converters
3. Handling Null Values and Reference Loops
4. Versioning Your JSON Schema
5. Performance Considerations for Serialization
6. Summary

Chapter 8: Exception Handling and Logging

1. Global Exception Handling Strategy
2. Creating Standardized Error Responses
3. ProblemDetails for RFC 7807 Compliance
4. Implementing IExceptionHandler (.NET 8+)
5. Structured Logging with ILogger
6. Log Levels, Enrichment, and Production Logging
7. Summary

Chapter 9: Authentication and Authorization

1. Authentication vs Authorization Fundamentals
2. Implementing JWT Bearer Token Authentication
3. Creating and Validating Tokens
4. Claims-Based Identity
5. Role-Based Authorization
6. Policy-Based Authorization
7. Refresh Tokens and Token Management
8. Summary

Chapter 10: API Security Essentials

1. Configuring CORS Correctly
2. Enforcing HTTPS in Production
3. Rate Limiting and Throttling
4. Protecting Against Common Attacks
5. Secrets Management and Sensitive Data
6. Summary

Chapter 11: Database Integration with Entity Framework Core

1. Setting Up Entity Framework Core
2. Designing Your Data Model
3. Migrations and Database Schema Management
4. CRUD Operations with DbContext
5. Query Optimization and N+1 Problems
6. Repository Pattern Considerations
7. Summary

Chapter 12: Advanced API Patterns

1. Pagination Strategies (Offset, Cursor-Based)
2. Filtering and Sorting Request Parameters
3. File Uploads and Downloads
4. Streaming Large Responses
5. Batch Operations and Bulk Updates
6. Summary

Chapter 13: Caching and Performance Optimization

1. In-Memory Caching with IMemoryCache
2. Distributed Caching with Redis
3. Response Caching Middleware
4. HTTP Caching Headers (ETag, Cache-Control)
5. Database Query Performance Tips
6. Summary

Chapter 14: Asynchronous Programming and HttpClient

1. Async/Await Best Practices in ASP.NET Core
2. Avoiding Deadlocks and Common Pitfalls
3. Using IHttpClientFactory for External Calls
4. Resilience Patterns (Retries, Circuit Breakers)
5. Timeout and Cancellation Handling
6. Summary

Chapter 15: API Documentation and Versioning

1. Setting Up Swagger/OpenAPI
2. Customizing the Swagger UI
3. Documenting Authentication in Swagger
4. API Versioning Strategies (URL, Header, Query String)
5. Managing Breaking Changes Gracefully
6. Summary

Chapter 16: Health Checks and Production Readiness

1. Built-in Health Check Endpoints
2. Custom Health Checks for Dependencies
3. Startup and Liveness Probes for Containers
4. Metrics and Monitoring Integration
5. Graceful Shutdown and Draining
6. Summary

Chapter 17: Testing ASP.NET Core Web APIs

1. Unit Testing Controllers and Services
2. Integration Testing with WebApplicationFactory
3. Testing Authentication and Authorization
4. Test Containers for Database Testing
5. Mocking External Dependencies
6. Summary

Chapter 18: Deployment and Production Operations

1. Publishing Your Web API
2. Docker Containerization
3. Deploying to Azure App Service
4. Environment-Specific Configuration
5. CI/CD Pipeline Considerations
6. Summary

Conclusion: Building APIs That Last

1. Key Principles to Remember
2. A Production Readiness Checklist
3. Continuing Your Journey

References