RESTful .Net by Jon Flanders Review

Title: RESTful .NET

Author: Jon Flanders

Published Year: 2009

ISBN:  978-0-596-51920-9

Publisher: O’reilly

Book Site: http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596519216.do

Review:

            This is a well written and very thorough book about REST, what it is, how it works and how to use it in a .Net environment. It starts at a fairly basic level on this subject and covers every aspect of this technology in detail.

            The Preface of this book indicates that the book is for .Net Developers who are familiar with REST and WCF and recommends other books as prerequisites for those not already familiar with these.  Certainly it is true that someone completely unfamiliar with these areas would find the book difficult to follow. The book does review the basics of REST pretty well, and it is clear about the purpose and use of WCF for those who, though familiar with it, might be “rusty” or not well versed.

I have been a software developer for over 30 years, and have been working in .Net since about 2004. I have written WCF services and I have been to a few lectures on REST and “played with” RESTful interfaces from time to time, but I would not consider myself an expert on either of these subjects. I did not find this book to be an “easy read” by any means; it is a highly technical book. But I did find it to be very clearly written and well organized. The author, Jon Flanders, is obviously extremely well qualified to cover the subject and does everything possible to explain each aspect of the technologies covered; including descriptions of what each feature is for, what it is not suited for, and how to use it.

After reviewing the basics and explaining the programming models, the book eases into the subject of writing RESTful services by covering Read-Only services, which may well be as much as some programmers need to know about it. But this is not a book for every programmer who wants to write a RESTful service. Instead, it is for programmers who want to know all about REST in .NET so that they can not only make informed decisions about how and where to use it (and where not to use it), but also implement it properly and securely in their projects.

Once Read-Only services have been described, the author goes into Read/Write services, Ajax Services and how to use it with Silverlight. There is also a complete chapter on programming Feeds. It then describes how to secure and consume services.

In short, I found this to be a high quality, comprehensive book and reference on the subject of writing RESTful services in .NET. It gives comprehensive, accurate coverage and is a good reference. In spite of this, it gives a competent introduction to the subject for those who don’t need or want to be pampered about it. It is practical, useful and descriptive in contrast to the standard documentation about REST that is found online, which I personally find very difficult to work with.  I found the book to be helpful and descriptive, with just the right amount of detail. It covered quite a bit more than I need for my current project, but I like this in a book. I’m sure I’ll refer back to it as needed on future projects.