CODEWITHSUNDEEP
azureasp.net-web-apimobilearchitectureazure-web-app-service
JPitts
JPitts

Reputation: 45

Azure web and mobile app (shared API)

I'm currently in the planning process for a mobile app I'd like to build, with a companion web app. The Mobile app and the Web app will share common data (for example, users can take a questionnaire in the mobile app or take the same questionnaire on the web app).

I've used Azure a couple of years ago to create and host a web app, but this is my first venture in mobile development. I'm trying to wrap my head around the architecture in Azure for hosting the API.

I've searched high and low, but either can't find a definitive answer to my question, or am not quite understanding what I am reading on the subject.

Basically: Where would my API live in Azure? Would I create a Mobile App in my App Service, which hosts the shared web API? Then create a Web App in the app service, and use something like RESTSharp to access the API from the web app?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 171

Answers (1)

Bruce Chen
Bruce Chen

Reputation: 18465

AFAIK, Web Apps and Mobile Apps are just different types of Azure App Service Apps which use to host the relevant applications (e.g. WebApps host website,webapi and MobileApps serve as the mobile backend service). Basically, they are the same and the difference between them is the app type and the Quickstart tutorial for them.

For mobile development, you could leverage the relevant SDKs (server-side and client-side) provided by Mobile Apps. You could also deploy your mobile backend application to Azure Web Apps to get the Mobile Functionality.

For Web Apps, you could follow here to build your web application and deploy to web app. For Mobile Apps, you could follow here to build your mobile backend and the tutorials for building your mobile client project.

Basically: Where would my API live in Azure? Would I create a Mobile App in my App Service, which hosts the shared web API? Then create a Web App in the app service, and use something like RESTSharp to access the API from the web app?

AFAIK, for Azure Mobile Apps backend, you could choose Node.js or C#. The relevant server SDKs provide out-of-the-box CRUD operations against the table. I would use the Mobile Apps SDKs to build my backend project and provide the ability to do operations on the specific table and the custom Web API to handle other operations. For your web app, you could use RESTSharp or just leverage the client SDKs provided by Azure Mobile Apps to communicate with your mobile backend endpoint (hosting on a web app or a mobile app).

For C# mobile app backend and mobile client side tutorials, you could follow adrian hall's book here.

For Node.js related mobile backend development, you could follow 30 DAYS OF AZURE MOBILE APPS.

Upvotes: 1

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