Nowadays, almost all applications rely on web services. A lot of them operate using the RESTful method. The resource-centric approach and the simplicity of the REST style have become an industry standard. Therefore, it is essential to understand the theory behind the REST way of working and why it is important. This chapter will introduce you to the Representational State Transfer (REST) method. We will see what the definition of REST is and how to identify REST-compliant web services. We will also introduce .NET Core 3.1 and ASP.NET Core, the brand new version of the open-source, cross-platform framework provided by Microsoft.

In summary, this chapter covers the following topics:

• Overview of REST architectural elements
• A brief introduction to the .NET ecosystem
• Why you should choose .NET to build a RESTful web service

By the end of this chapter, you will have an overview of some useful tools and IDEs that you can use to start developing on .NET Core.

This chapter will cover some of the base concepts of .NET Core 3.1 and ASP.NET Core. You need to have either Windows, Linux, or macOS installed. The setup process will depend on which OS you are using. We'll look at the different tools that can be used to develop apps and web services in .NET Core.