ASP.NET Core Web API Versioning

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ASP.NET Core Web API Versioning

In this article, I will discuss ASP.NET Core Web API Versioning. Web API versioning is a method for managing and maintaining multiple versions of an API simultaneously. This is useful in a Service-Oriented Architecture where various clients may depend on different versions of an API.

Versioning allows developers to modify or improve their services without breaking the functionality of existing clients. It enables multiple versions of an API. As a result, developers can introduce new features, fix bugs, or make other changes while still supporting older versions of the API. This ensures backward compatibility and helps maintain a stable and predictable API for clients.

Why is Web API Versioning Required?

Once you develop and deploy a Web API service, different clients will start consuming your Web API services. As you know, day by day, the business grows, and once the business grows, then the requirement may change, and once the requirement changes, then you may need to change the services as well, but the important thing you need to keep in mind is that you need to do the changes to the services in such a way that it should not break any existing client applications who already consuming your services.

This is the ideal scenario when the Web API versioning plays an important role. You need to keep the existing services as it is so that the existing client applications will not break, they worked as it is, and you need to develop a new version of the Web API service which will start consuming by the new client applications. So, Web API Versioning is required for several reasons. They are as follows:

• Backward Compatibility: It ensures that existing clients can continue to function even as new features and changes are rolled out.
• Incremental Improvements: Allows developers to introduce new features, improvements, and bug fixes to the API without breaking contracts with clients who might not be ready to update their applications.
• Adoption: Clients can choose when to upgrade to the latest API version based on their schedule, reducing the impact of new updates.
• Deprecation Strategy: Provides a clear path to phase out older versions of the API while encouraging clients to migrate to newer versions.

What are the Different Options available in ASP.NET Core Web API to maintain the API Versioning?

ASP.NET Core Web API provides several options for versioning:

• Query String Versioning: The version number is specified as a query parameter in the URL. Example: https://api.example.com/products?api-version=1.0
• URL Path Versioning: The version number is included directly in the URL path. Example: https://api.example.com/v1/products
• Header Versioning: The version number is specified in a custom header, often called api-version. Example: Header: api-version: 1.0
• Media Type Versioning: Also known as “content negotiation” or “accept header” versioning, where the version number is included in the Accept header of the HTTP request. Example: Accept: application/json;v=1.0

Which API Versioning Mechanism is Best?

The choice of versioning mechanism depends on the specific needs of the API and its intended users. The following are Common Recommendations:

• URL Path Versioning is straightforward and easy for developers to understand and use because of its simplicity and clarity. It is best for public APIs.
• Header Versioning and Media Type Versioning are suitable for professional developers who prefer not to expose versioning in the URL and are managing multiple versions extensively.
• Query String Versioning is suitable for simpler or internal applications where quick implementation is needed and without changing the URL structure significantly.

In the next article, I will discuss how to implement Web API Versioning using Query String in ASP.NET Core with Examples. In this article, I explain what ASP.NET Core Web API Versioning is. I hope you enjoy this ASP.NET Core Web API Versioning article.