About my Web API session at Twin Cities Code Camp
Update: I'll be in the 12:45pm track, come see me crash and burn!
Yay! I was just informed by TCCC that I've made it onto the Sessions list so I guess I'm officially a speaker. This would be the very first time I'm giving a public talk on my own. I was part of a session at MinneWebCon when I spoke about my work on the Student Unions & Activities touch-screen directory, so I have at least 15 minutes under my belt.
Session? Or Presentation?
Presentation is a strong and loaded word. It brings to mind a boring PowerPoint slideshow of stuff no one ever reads. It brings to mind a stale "I'm going to talk at you" type of feeling, where the "participants" aren't actually participating.
No, my session at TCCC is not like that. I did a 20 minute version of the session at work and it went well, though I didn't have much time to dive into real code, which is definitely what I plan to do at TCCC... after all, it is a code camp. I will be showing some information about the topics I cover but other than that, we will be diving into the bowels of my app... for better or worse.
ASP.NET Web API: What now?
I've been using Web API for a bit, it'll be a core part of the next Keep Track of My Games. In fact, the beta version of KTOMG will be what I will use to demo all my code and ideas.
I'm not an expert on it. I'm not even "great" at it. I'm just a regular developer who is using it on a real project and I've run into "real" issues. The main reason I wanted to do a session on Web API is because of a few reasons:
- Web API is awesome and everyone should know about it
- Some things aren't apparent when you're starting out doing API development
- Most presentations on Web API are cursory overviews
- It can be hard to know what the "right way" to do things is
Regarding #4, this is a hard thing to talk about... since I still don't know "what the right way" is and I think it depends on your situation. However, at the very least, I can tell you what I did and what works for me and maybe you can leave the session with a better idea of what it is you want to do.
So what's on the agenda?
Lots of stuff, and I'm sure we won't get to a lot of it:
- Debugging tips
- CSRF prevention
- Custom routing (w/client-side)
- Custom error handling
- Integration with the client-side
- Working with multiple clients (phone, Windows 8, etc.)
- Versioning
- Async actions
There'll be plenty to show and plenty more to discuss. I'm more interested in seeing what others have done or would recommend.
I'm pretty excited, so I'll see you April 27!
