ASP.NET Web API, web service discovery and client creation

Question

I can't find anything on the implementation of service discovery for the ASP.NET Web API. For a new project I need to make a decision between WCF and Web API. The service element will be consumed by a variety of clients, mobile, client-side JavaScript but also an ASP.NET website.

For the website the convenience of being able to generate a client against a WCF service is obviously a plus. I am not that familiar with RESTful web services but I see that there is Web Application Description Language (WADL). Maybe it is my ignorance but surely it is a good thing to be able to advertise the correct way to consume your service?

My main question: is there anything that generates a WADL or similar for WEB API?

Secondary question: this tool looks like it generates a client based on a WADL, is there anything else that makes life easy keeping a client up to date with a RESTful web service?

Answer 1

There is a considerable amount of work going in there. It is not finished but watch the space.

Having a look here (and newer Yao posts): http://blogs.msdn.com/b/yaohuang1/archive/2012/05/21/asp-net-web-api-generating-a-web-api-help-page-using-apiexplorer.aspx

Also

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/yaohuang1/archive/2012/06/15/using-apiexplorer-to-export-api-information-to-postman-a-chrome-extension-for-testing-web-apis.aspx

Answer 2

I blogged an approach to generating WADL with ASP.NET Web API here: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/stuartleeks/archive/2014/05/20/teaching-asp-net-web-api-to-wadl.aspx