Convert Web API to use Self Hosting

Question

I am trying to convert an existing ASP.NET Web API project (currently hosted in IIS) into one that can use the SelfHost framework. I\'m a bit fuzzy on the actual details but

Answer 1

I recently had to convert a Web API project into a self-hosted service using OWIN (on Visual Studio 2013). I did that as follows:

1. Manually added Program.cs and Startup.cs files at the root of the project. Both files containing code as described here: http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/hosting-aspnet-web-api/use-owin-to-self-host-web-api.

2. Went to the properties of the Web API project. On the "Applications" section, I stated "Output Type" as "Console Application", and set the "Program" class as the "Startup object".

Although not required, I slightly modified the using block within Program.Main() to look as follows:

// Start OWIN host 
using (WebApp.Start<Startup>(url: baseAddress)) 
{ 
  // Create HttpCient and make a request to api/values 
  HttpClient client = new HttpClient(); 
  var response = client.GetAsync(baseAddress + "api/values").Result; 

  if (response != null)
  {
    Console.WriteLine("Information from service: {0}", response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result);
  }
  else
  {
    Console.WriteLine("ERROR: Impossible to connect to service");
  }

  Console.WriteLine();
  Console.WriteLine("Press ENTER to stop the server and close app...");
  Console.ReadLine();
} 

Finally, instead of calling config.Routes.MapHttpRoute() multiple times within Startup.Configuration(), you can refer to the routes you already wrote for the Web API:

// Configure Web API for self-host. 
var config = new HttpConfiguration();
WebApiConfig.Register(config);        
app.UseWebApi(config);