3/18/2014 ASP.

NET Web API Processing Architecture | Pedro Flix' s shared memory

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ASP.NET Web API Processing Architecture
Posted in Software by pedrofelix on March 5, 2012
Introduction
This post presents a first overview of the ASP.NET Web API processing architecture: what happens since a
HTTP request is received until a response is produced.
Processing Architecture
The ASP.NET Web API processing architecture, represented in the following diagram, is composed by three
layers: hosting, message handler pipeline and controller handling.
3/18/2014 ASP.NET Web API Processing Architecture | Pedro Flix' s shared memory
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Hosting
The lower layer is responsible for the Web API hosting, i.e., the interface between Web API and an underlying
HTTP handling runtime. Succinctly, this layer is responsible for creating HttpRequestMessage instances, and
then pushing them into the upper message handler pipeline. The hosting layer is also responsible for processing
the HttpResponseMessage returned back from this handler pipeline.
Currently, there are two out-of-the-box hosting options: self-hosting and web hosting, i.e., hosting on top of
the ASP.NET classical pipeline.
Self-hosting is based on a pump that retrieves WCF Message instances from a WCF channel stack, converts
them into HttpRequestMessage instances and then push those into the upper message handler pipeline.
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3/18/2014 ASP.NET Web API Processing Architecture | Pedro Flix' s shared memory
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Web-hosting is based on a specific IHttpAsyncHandler, named HttpControllerHandler, that converts
HttpRequest instances into HttpRequestMessage.
The Web API hosting is not limited to these two options. There are already some additional hosts, contributed
by the community:
Louis DeJardin created a host on top of OWIN.
Ive created a host based on the Azure Service Bus relaying.
Message Handler Pipeline
The middle layer is composed by a message handler pipeline, similar to the one that existed on WCF Web API.
This pipeline is exposed by the HttpServer class, which also extends HttpMessageHandler (composite pattern).
This pipeline provides the extensibility point for middleware addressing cross-cutting concerns such as: logging,
HTTP authentication, HTTP method translation,
Usually, at the top of this pipeline, there is a special handler: the HttpControllerDispatcher. This handler is
responsible for obtaining and calling a controller to handle the request.
The presence of this HttpControllerDispatcher is only required when using the controller-based programming
model (ApiController derived classes). It is also possible to mount a completely different model, just by
replacing the pipelines top message handler.
Controller Handling
Finally, the upper layer corresponds to the controller specific processing, namely:
Action selection;
Filter execution;
Model binding;
Action invocation;
Response content creation via formatters.
This processing is done inside the ApiController instance, called by the HttpControllerDispatcher.
Final Remarks
Future posts will address each one of this layers in more details. Until then, feel free to use the comments.
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Tagged with: asp.net web api
6 comments
Enabling HTTPS with self-hosted ASP.NET Web API
ASP.NET Web API: in-memory hosting
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1. Livingston said, on March 7, 2012 at 5:10 pm
Where can I plug into the validation? I would like to replace DataAnnotationsModelValidator and use
FluentValidation on my models
Reply
pedrofelix said, on March 7, 2012 at 10:11 pm
Take a look at http://weblogs.asp.net/cibrax/archive/2012/02/23/validating-your-models-in-asp-
net-web-api.aspx for
Reply
Livingston said, on March 10, 2012 at 7:00 am
In that example, the model is validated using attributes and through the ValidationActionFilter
you get access to the model state.
what I want to do is plug into the pipeline, apply my own validation rules without attributes,
which would then populate the modelsate errors accessible in ValidationActionFilter
2. KnowYourStack - What is ASP.NET WebAPI said, on March 16, 2012 at 2:43 pm
[...] More [...]
Reply
neaflo said, on May 26, 2012 at 10:46 am
Related
ASP.NET Web API: in-memory
hosting
ASP.NET Web API: web hosting ASP.NET Web API: self-hosting
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3/18/2014 ASP.NET Web API Processing Architecture | Pedro Flix' s shared memory
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Hi Pedro,
Are you aware of any performance comparisons between Web API and WCFs
WebHttpEndpoint?
Reply
3. Session: Deep-Dive to ASP.NET Web API - Gunnar Peipman's ASP.NET blog said, on
September 4, 2012 at 3:52 pm
[...] ASP.NET Web API Processing Architecture (Pedro Flix) [...]
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