asp.net MVC Web API VS asp.net MVC 4 & MVC 3 internet application

Question

i read about the beta version of asp.net MVC 4 web API , i think that it is related to building web services. So are these two frameworks (MVC 4 internet application & Web API) targeting different types of application or they may be used for building similar types of application but using different frameworks?

for example if i need to build an internet application for a registration system for a university or an internet shopping store (which i use to develop using asp.net MVC 3 internet application),, then will these two frameworks be suitable for these types of applications ??? Thanks for any help ... BR

Answer 1

Those are just 2 templates. No matter which one you choose when creating the application initially you could always later change and add functionality. The MVC 4 internet application template is similar to the ASP.NET MVC 3 internet application template. It creates a default Home and Account controllers, it registers a default route and adds a couple of views.

The Web API template in addition to all this it adds an API route and an ApiController allowing you to expose RESTful APIs in your web application. The Web API is basically a simplified way to build RESTful services. Up until now this was possible with WCF but the Web API makes it really simple. The Web API could be self hosted. You don't need to put it in an ASP.NET MVC application.