👀 Views: 184 💬 Answers: 1 📅 Created: 2025-10-17

API versioning ASP.NET design-patterns C#

I've been working on this all day and I'm relatively new to this, so bear with me... Trying to implement a versioning strategy for our REST API in a .NET 7 application that's currently in the staging environment. We want to allow for multiple versions of our API without breaking changes, but I'm uncertain if the approach I've taken is optimal. Initially, I set up attribute routing like this: ```csharp [ApiController] [Route("api/v{version:apiVersion}/[controller]")] public class ProductsController : ControllerBase { [HttpGet] public IActionResult Get() { // Logic for getting products } } ``` For API versioning, I added the Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Versioning package and configured it in the `Startup.cs`: ```csharp services.AddApiVersioning(options => { options.ReportApiVersions = true; options.AssumeDefaultVersionWhenUnspecified = true; options.DefaultApiVersion = new ApiVersion(1, 0); }); ``` While this works in principle, I've noticed that when trying to access older versions, the routes can get a bit messy. For instance, when I attempt to add a new feature in version 2.0, the existing version 1.0 methods often interfere with the new routes, leading to confusion and routing conflicts. I've also tried implementing a custom versioning strategy with a query string approach: ```csharp [Route("api/products?version={version}")] ``` However, this feels less elegant and could pose challenges for client-side integrations. My team is concerned that if we don't settle on a clean versioning approach now, it might lead to technical debt down the line. Any recommendations on best practices for managing API versions in .NET while keeping the code maintainable? Would using a different library, like AspNetCore.Mvc.Versioning, provide clearer separation? What are the pros and cons of these approaches in a real-world context? I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 using the latest version of C#. What would be the recommended way to handle this? For reference, this is a production REST API. Thanks for any help you can provide!