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Using EF Core in ASP.NET Core Web API for performing

CRUD operations
Posted by: Mahesh Sabnis , on 2/27/2017, in Category Entity Framework

Views: 21934

Abstract: This article explains how to use Entity Framework (EF) Core in ASP.NET Core Web API for performing
CRUD operations.

The Web API component of the application acts as an HTTP based interface which accepts HTTP requests from
a third party client application and performs data operations. The following diagram tries to explain the possible
architecture of this hypothetical application using Web API.

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 Figure 1: WebAPI with EFCore Application Architecture

This application can expose its business logic to the various client applications using Web API. Web API can
effectively use the repositories to decouple the Business and Data Access Layers from the Web API Controller
class. The Web API application can use inbuilt Dependency Injection (DI) to inject required dependencies in
objects. For e.g. The Data Access can be registered in the DI and can be injected in the Business Layer, further
the Business Layer can be registered in DI and injected in the Repository, and Repository in the Web API.

This article explains how to use EF Core in Web API for performing CRUD operations.

Entity Framework Core is a lightweight Data Access Technology provided on .NET Core. If you are new to EF
Core, read http://www.dotnetcurry.com/entityframework/1347/entity-framework-ef-core-tutorial

Step 1: Open Visual Studio 2015 and create a new ASP.NET Core Web application as shown in the following
image:

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 Name this application as WebApi_With_EFCore. Click on the OK Button, the following window will be displayed.
Select Web API template from a list of ASP.NET Core templates.

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 Doing so will create a Web API application.

Step 2: The Application uses EF Core with a Sql Server database. This requires an installation of EF Core and
Sql Server Packages.

Install-Package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.SqlServer
 
Install-Package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools –Pre
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 Install-Package Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore.Tools –Pre

These packages are used to provide EF Core database migration so that Database tables can be generated from
the Entity.

Step 3: In the project, add a new folder named ’Models’. In this folder, add a new class file of the name
ModelClasses.cs which will contain an Entity class as shown in the following code:

using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;
using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations.Schema;
 
namespace WebApi_With_EFCore.Models
{
    public class Book
    {
        [Key]
        [DatabaseGenerated(DatabaseGeneratedOption.None)]
        public int Id { get; set; }
        [Required (ErrorMessage ="Book Title Must be provided")]
        [StringLength(50, MinimumLength = 2)]
        public string BookTitle { get; set; }
        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Please provide Author Name")]
        [StringLength(100, MinimumLength = 2, ErrorMessage ="Length must be
within 2 to 100 characters")]
        public string AuthorName { get; set; }
        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Publisher Name is must")]
        [StringLength(100, MinimumLength = 2,ErrorMessage ="Must be with 2 to 100
characters")]
        public string Publisher { get; set; }
        public string Genre { get; set; }
        [Required(ErrorMessage = "Book Price is must")]
        [DataType(DataType.Currency)]
        [Range(1, 999,ErrorMessage ="Must be with range from 1 to 999")]
        public int Price { get; set; }
    }
}

The above ‘Book’ class has an Id property which is applied with Key and DatabaseGenerated attributes. The
DatabaseGeneratedOptions is set to None, which means that it will be used as an explicitly entered primary
key. The other properties of the class are applied with validation attributes.

Step 4: In the Model folder, add a new class file of the name AppContext.cs. This class file contains the following
code:

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 using Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore;
namespace WebApi_With_EFCore.Models
{
  
    public class ApplicationContext : DbContext
    {
        public ApplicationContext(DbContextOptions opts):base(opts)
        {
        }
        public DbSet< Book > Books { get; set; }
        protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder
optionsBuilder)
        {
        }
    }
}

The ApplicationContext class is derived from the DbContext class. The DbContext class is used to manage
Database connection and transaction over the mapped table using DbSet. The parameterized constructor
accepts DbContextOptions class which is used when the migration commands are executed.

Step 5: Open SQL Server and create a new database of the name WebApiEfCore using the following command:

Create database WebApiEfCore

Step 6: To define the connection string with the database so that it can be used by EF Core, add the following
entry in the appsettings.json file.

"Data": {
    "DefaultConnection": {
      "ConnectionString":
"Server=.;Database=WebApiEfCore;Trusted_Connection=True;"
    }
}

Step 7: As per Figure 1, the application uses repositories to isolate the Data Access code from the Web Api
controller class. To implement this isolation, add a new folder of name ‘Repositories’ in the application. Add a new
class file of name DataAccessRepositories.cs in it which contains the following code:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using WebApi_With_EFCore.Models;
 
namespace WebApi_With_EFCore.Repositories
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 namespace WebApi_With_EFCore.Repositories
{
    public interface IDataAccess< TEntity,U > where TEntity : class
    {
        IEnumerable< TEntity > GetBooks();
        TEntity GetBook(U id);
        int AddBook(TEntity b);
        int UpdateBook(U id,TEntity b);
        int DeleteBook(U id);
    }
 
    public class DataAccessRepository : IDataAccess< Book, int >
    {
        ApplicationContext ctx;
        public DataAccessRepository(ApplicationContext c)
        {
            ctx = c;
        }
        public int AddBook(Book b)
        {
            ctx.Books.Add(b);
            int res = ctx.SaveChanges();
            return res;
        }
 
        public int DeleteBook(int id)
        {
            int res = 0;
            var book = ctx.Books.FirstOrDefault(b => b.Id == id);
            if (book != null)
            {
                ctx.Books.Remove(book);
                res = ctx.SaveChanges();
            }
            return res;
        }
 
        public Book GetBook(int id)
        {
            var book = ctx.Books.FirstOrDefault(b=>b.Id==id);
            return book;
        }
 
        public IEnumerable< Book > GetBooks()
        {
            var books = ctx.Books.ToList();
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             var books = ctx.Books.ToList();
            return books;
        }
 
        public int UpdateBook(int id,Book b)
        {
            int res = 0;
            var book = ctx.Books.Find(id);
            if (book != null)
            {
                book.BookTitle = b.BookTitle;
                book.AuthorName = b.AuthorName;
                book.Publisher = b.Publisher;
                book.Genre = b.Genre;
                book.Price = b.Price;
               res = ctx.SaveChanges();
            }
            return res;
        }
    }
}

The above code contains an interface of the name ‘IDataAccess’. This is a generic interface which declares
methods for performing CRUD operations. The interface is implemented by the DataAccessrepository class and
implements all methods of an interface. The code uses the ApplicationContext class for performing database
operations. The code is quite similar to EF 6.x code. The ‘ApplicationContext’ class is passed as dependency to
the DataAccessRepository class.

So the question that arises is Where are the dependencies registered?

Registering all the required Dependencies

Step 8: To read the database connection string and to register all the required dependencies in DI, open
Startup.cs and make the following changes in the ConfigureServices methods (highlighted):

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)

{
    services.AddDbContext< ApplicationContext >(opts=>
        opts.UseSqlServer(Configuration["Data:DefaultConnection:ConnectionString"]));
    services.AddSingleton(typeof(IDataAccess< Book, int >),
typeof(DataAccessRepository));
    services.AddMvc();
}

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 The DI container registers DataAccessRepository class as a Singleton. The AddDbContext method uses the
ApplicationContext class for injecting it in the DI container. This method further uses SQL Server connection string
to map with the SQL Server database. Here the important point is that the AddDbContext uses a Lambda
Expression which is the DbContextOptionsBuilder object. This object is further used when the migration
commands are executed.

Step 9: Open the Package Manager Console using Tools > NuGet Package Manager > Package Manager
Console and run the following commands for migration:

Add-Migration WebApi_With_EFCore.Models.ApplicationContext
 
Update-database

as shown in the following image:

These commands will add the Migrations folder in the project with classes containing code for Table generation.
This will generate Books table in the WebApiEfCore database.

Step 10: In the Controllers folder, add a new Web Api Controller of the name BookAPIController as shown in the
following image:

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 The BookAPIController class has the base class as a Controller, which is entirely different from the earlier
version of Web API where the base class was ApiController class. This means that the MVC Controller and API
Controllers has the same pipeline for request processing.

In this API controller, add the following code:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using WebApi_With_EFCore.Models;
using WebApi_With_EFCore.Repositories;
 
namespace WebApi_With_EFCore.Controllers
{
    [Route("api/[controller]")]
    public class BookAPIController : Controller
    {
        IDataAccess

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 In the above code, the BookAPIController class contains a constructor with IDataAccess interface passed to it as
dependency. This provides an instance of DataAccessRepository class to the controller class for performing
CRUD operations.

Step 11: To launch the API, update the launchSettings.json file on the ‘Properties’ folder of the application
(highlighted):

"profiles": {
    "IIS Express": {
      "commandName": "IISExpress",
      "launchBrowser": true,
      "launchUrl": "api/BookAPI",
      "environmentVariables": {
        "ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT": "Development"
      }
},

Build the project and make sure that it is error free.

Step 12: Run the application. This application can be tested using Fiddler (or any other REST client)

POST request

In Fiddler, add the URL and request body as show in the following image

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 This will add new record in the Books table in the WebApiEfCore database. When a GET Request is made using
the browser, the response received is as follows:

Likewise, PUT and DELETE requested can also be tested.

Conclusion: Web API in ASP.NET Core effectively makes use of the DependencyInjection (DI) feature using
which the Data Access code implemented using EF Core can be isolated from the action method of the Api
Controller class.

Download the entire source code of this article (Github)

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What’s New in Entity Framework 6.0 RC1

AUTHOR

Mahesh Sabnis is a DotNetCurry author and Microsoft MVP having over 17 years of
experience in IT education and development. He is a Microsoft Certified Trainer
(MCT) since 2005 and has conducted various Corporate Training programs for .NET
Technologies (all versions). Follow him on twitter @maheshdotnet

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