Comments on: OpenRasta – a really ReSTful alternative to WCF http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45 A decade of Delphi, a little less .NET Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:25:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: uberVU - social comments http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45&cpage=1#comment-36951 uberVU - social comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:25:09 +0000 http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45#comment-36951 <strong>Social comments and analytics for this post...</strong> This post was mentioned on Twitter by andybritcliffe: Great blog pitting WCF v OpenRasta or more accurately why you should use OpenRasta over WCF if you want REST services http://bit.ly/5epLfy... Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by andybritcliffe: Great blog pitting WCF v OpenRasta or more accurately why you should use OpenRasta over WCF if you want REST services http://bit.ly/5epLfy…

]]> By: Russ http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45&cpage=1#comment-36950 Russ Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:21:36 +0000 http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45#comment-36950 Hi Jesse, thanks for the feedback. I'm not comparing REST to WCF. I'm comparing two implementations that claim support for ReST as an architectural style. One library has been built ground-up to support only ReST; the other has been built to try to support more or less anything, and as a result, compromises ReST in areas which were key for us. Don't get me wrong, I like WCF a lot for certain types of application (basically, service orientation); I simply feel that people will see WCF and its ReST starter kit and think "right, this is the way to do ReST - with WCF" when <strong>out of the box</strong> WCF is very biased towards RPC, which ReST isn't. You said it yourself - WCF is massively configurable and could be made to be more ReST-idiomatic, but that's an awful lot of work, especially for people who aren't 100% familiar with the complex WCF extensibility story (I'm guessing you are - some good content on your site that I'm about to spend a bit of time reading ;)). OpenRasta has not only done this work already, it's also baked in IoC at the framework level to make TDD-ed handlers trivial. I was really struggling to test WCF ReST services except at integration level. I think WCF was just a bit too flexible for its own good as far as we were concerned. It requires that you turn up with all your opinions fully-formed and implement parts of the framework yourself to fit your opinions (which I'm not sure we had!). OpenRasta arrives with its opinions on its sleeve and forces you into good ReST practice (even if you don't know it yet!). Those constraints turned out to be incredibly liberating for us and made us concentrate on what we were delivering rather than how to deliver it. Hi Jesse, thanks for the feedback. I’m not comparing REST to WCF. I’m comparing two implementations that claim support for ReST as an architectural style. One library has been built ground-up to support only ReST; the other has been built to try to support more or less anything, and as a result, compromises ReST in areas which were key for us.

Don’t get me wrong, I like WCF a lot for certain types of application (basically, service orientation); I simply feel that people will see WCF and its ReST starter kit and think “right, this is the way to do ReST – with WCF” when out of the box WCF is very biased towards RPC, which ReST isn’t. You said it yourself – WCF is massively configurable and could be made to be more ReST-idiomatic, but that’s an awful lot of work, especially for people who aren’t 100% familiar with the complex WCF extensibility story (I’m guessing you are – some good content on your site that I’m about to spend a bit of time reading ;) ). OpenRasta has not only done this work already, it’s also baked in IoC at the framework level to make TDD-ed handlers trivial. I was really struggling to test WCF ReST services except at integration level.

I think WCF was just a bit too flexible for its own good as far as we were concerned. It requires that you turn up with all your opinions fully-formed and implement parts of the framework yourself to fit your opinions (which I’m not sure we had!). OpenRasta arrives with its opinions on its sleeve and forces you into good ReST practice (even if you don’t know it yet!). Those constraints turned out to be incredibly liberating for us and made us concentrate on what we were delivering rather than how to deliver it.

]]> By: Jesse Ezell http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45&cpage=1#comment-36948 Jesse Ezell Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:35:04 +0000 http://www.zephyros-systems.co.uk/blog/?p=45#comment-36948 OpenRasta is a great project, and I respect Seb's knowledge of REST better than just about anyone I know. However, comparing REST and WCF isn't really a good comparison since REST is an architectural style and WCF is a library. WCF can actually be customized to do all sorts of things at the transport layer and work with raw messages to support all the same scenarios... unfortunately, there hasn't been too much work done in that area, but it certainly is possible. Here's some of the basics: http://blog.iserviceoriented.com/index.php/2010/01/23/building-a-basic-web-server-using-wcf/ A little more complicated than using HttpListeners... but much more powerful in the right hands. In any case, OpenRasta is a great framework, so don't want to detract at all from it, but there is a lot more to WCF than many people realize. OpenRasta is a great project, and I respect Seb’s knowledge of REST better than just about anyone I know. However, comparing REST and WCF isn’t really a good comparison since REST is an architectural style and WCF is a library.

WCF can actually be customized to do all sorts of things at the transport layer and work with raw messages to support all the same scenarios… unfortunately, there hasn’t been too much work done in that area, but it certainly is possible.

Here’s some of the basics:

http://blog.iserviceoriented.com/index.php/2010/01/23/building-a-basic-web-server-using-wcf/

A little more complicated than using HttpListeners… but much more powerful in the right hands.

In any case, OpenRasta is a great framework, so don’t want to detract at all from it, but there is a lot more to WCF than many people realize.

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