My presentation done on Windows Phone App Camp Lithuania. I was also helping as a mentor. It was very interesting experience for me.

1. REST API for your WP7 App
Agnius Paradnikas
@Agnius101

2. About me
• .NET web developer for more than 6 years.
• Recently focused on mobile app development.
• Graduated KTU.
• Created first WP7 app more than 1 year ago.
• Now developing Weepin WP7 app on my
spare time.

3. My first WP7 app

4. www.weepin.lt

5. • Weepin won 2-nd
place in additional
round in WP7 app
challenge.
• At the moment is
the first in The Best
App category in
LOGIN2012.

6. REST API
? Server DB

7. REST API
REST
API
Server DB

8. REST API
• Stands for REpresentational State Transfer.
• Client-server: separation of concerns.
• Statless: no state is saved on server, if needed
it is saved on client.
• Cacheable: clients can cache responses.

9. REST API
• Easy to scale out.
• Easy to build, maintain and modify.
• Less overhead - higher performance.
• Implementation does not require high
technical skill level.

10. REST API example
http://www.domain.com/api/names?count=2
{
"Names": [
{
"NameHTML": "<b>Ipr</b>amol",
"NameText": "Ipramol",
"IsShortname": true
},
{
"NameHTML": "<b>Ipr</b>atropiumbromid Arrow",
"NameText": "Ipratropiumbromid Arrow",
"IsShortname": false
}
]
}

11. • Simple REST and HTTP API Client for .NET.
• No need to know about low-level networking.
• Covers all needed cases like:
– Async requests (all requests in WP7 should be async!);
– Data mapping;
– Authentication;
– JSON/XML serialization;
– Implement your own custom serialization;
– Etc.

12. Getting Started
• Add reference via NuGet.
• And you’re done.

13. TodoApp DEMO and Example
http://todoapp.agnius.lt/api/todos
[
{
"id": "1",
"todo": "Make dinner.",
"username": "Agnius101",
"created": "2012-04-09",
},
{
"id": "2",
"todo": "Finish WP7 presentation",
"username": "Agnius101",
"created": "2012-04-13",
]
},
...
]

14. var client = new RestClient();
client.BaseUrl = "http://todoapp.agnius.lt/api";
RestRequest request = new RestRequest();
request.Resource = "todos";
request.RequestFormat = DataFormat.Json;
request.Method = Method.GET;

15. client.ExecuteAsync<List<TodoModel>>(request, (response)
=> {
if (response.ResponseStatus != ResponseStatus.Error
&& response.StatusCode == System.Net.HttpStatusCode.OK)
{
this.todosListBox.ItemsSource = response.Data;
} else {
MessageBox.Show("Ups! Error occured.");
}
});

16. REST API Server side
• Choose any technology you want:
– .NET
– JAVA
– PHP
– Python
– Ruby
– and so on…

17. • Cheap and easy way to implement server side
REST API.
• For PHP and MySQL.
• Supports all needed tools to build REST API:
– MVC
– Routing
– ORM
– Logging & Profiling
– and so on…

18. Getting Started
• Go to http://www.doophp.com/
• Download latest version.
• Create MySQL database tables.
• Make configuration changes in:
– appprotectedconfigcommon.conf.php
– appprotectedconfigdb.conf.php

19. Define routes
appprotectedconfigroutes.conf.php
<?php
$route['get']['/todos'] = array('MainController', 'getAll');
$route['get']['/todos/:id'] = array('MainController', 'getById');
$route['post']['/todos/new'] = array('MainController', 'createNew');
$route['post']['/todos/:id'] = array('MainController', 'deleteTodo');
?>

20. Create models
appprotectedmodelTodo.php
<?php
class Todo{
public $id;
public $todo;
public $username;
public $created;
public $_table = 'todos';
public $_primarykey = 'id';
public $_fields =
array('id','user_id','todo','username', 'created');
}
?>

21. Implement controllers
appprotectedcontrollerMainController.php
<?php
class MainController extends DooController{
public function getAll(){
$todos = $this->db()->find('Todo');
$result = json_encode($todos);
$this->setContentType('json', 'utf-8');
echo $result;
}
}
?>

22. Upload everything to the server
If you are lucky everything should work.

23. My own experience
• Never try to do everything yourself.
• Be fast.
• Think how to add Facebook and YouTube
effect to your app.
• Read carefully certification requirements
before submitting your app.

24. How can I help you
• Support creating WP7 app from scratch.
• Setup REST API and DB in both .NET and PHP
technologies.
• Share my experience if you decide to move with
advanced techniques like MvvM.
• Give advice on usability.
• Give advice how to improve functionality.
• I don’t have experience creating games on XNA.

25. Follow me on Twitter
@Agnius101