.NET Query String Detective

An online tool to quickly and effortlessly test and compare the behaviour of .NET's query string binding across both minimal APIs and controller-based APIs¹.

How does it work?

Input queries are sent to a set of in-memory test server (TestServer) instances — a component which fuels .NET's integration testing capabilities² — one which wraps an API built with minimal APIs, and another which wraps an API built with Controllers.

Using source generators³, these test servers define a number of endpoints which utilise the FromQuery attribute to bind (or, attempt to bind) the incoming query string parameter q to a given target type.

A distinct (in-memory) request is sent to each test server for all target types, and these binding results are collated by the caller and returned to the client. To summarize:

flowchart LR
   client["Client<br>[Blazor WASM]"]
   subgraph "Server [Azure Function App]"
    func["Evaluator<br>[Azure Function]"]
    func -->|forward query| tsA[["[TestServer] (Minimal APIs)"]]
    func -->|forward query| tsB[["[TestServer] (Controllers)"]]
   end
   client -->|send query| func

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Footnotes

1. Choose between controller-based APIs and minimal APIs | Microsoft Learn ↩

2. Integration tests in ASP.NET Core | Microsoft Learn ↩

3. Source Generators | Microsoft Learn ↩