In this blog post, I'll show you how to use the Number Insight API within the .NET ecosystem. We'll build an ASP.NET Core Web API application that allows users to specify a phone number and retrieve details like carrier, country, and more. We’ll output information about a phone number from basic to advanced so you can choose the right one for your project.
The complete source code for this tutorial is available on GitHub.
To follow along with this tutorial, you’ll need the following:
Vonage API Account
A text editor or IDE like Visual Studio
To complete this tutorial, you will need a Vonage API account. If you don’t have one already, you can sign up today and start building with free credit. Once you have an account, you can find your API Key and API Secret at the top of the Vonage API Dashboard.
Let’s set up the project. I’ll break it down into just 4 steps:
Create an ASP.NET Core Web API Project
Install the Vonage Library
Add your API credentials
Register the Vonage Client
Use your preferred method, whether it's the .NET CLI (dotnet new webapi) or Visual Studio's project creation wizard, to create a new ASP.NET Core Web API project.
Open your project's Package Manager Console or use the .NET CLI and run the following command:
Install-Package Vonage
Navigate to your appsettings.json file and add the following, replacing the placeholders with your actual Vonage API credentials:
{ "vonage": {
"Api.Key": "your_vonage_api_key",
"Api.Secret": "your_vonage_api_secret"
}
}
In your Program.cs file, add the following code to thebuilder.Servicessection to register the Vonage client for dependency injection: builder.Services.AddVonageClientScoped(builder.Configuration);
You can create or rename the one that comes by default with the project template and require the numberInsightClient as a parameter in the constructor to get a reference from the DI ServiceCollection.
public NumberInsightsController(INumberInsightClient numberInsightClient) {
_numberInsightClient = numberInsightClient; }
The Number Insight API offers three levels of detail. You can check a feature comparison table.
Add the three endpoints that perform the Basic, Standard, and Advanced Lookups. For example:
var result = await _numberInsightClient.GetNumberInsightBasicAsync(new Vonage.NumberInsights.BasicNumberInsightRequest() { Number = phoneNumber });
Start your ASP.NET Core project from Visual Studio to run the app or use the .NET CLI (dotnet run).
You can test the endpoints via the automatically created OpenAPI/Swagger page. You can usually access the Swagger UI by navigating to /swagger.
Number Insights Swagger Example
You have reached the end of this tutorial! We built a phone number lookup app using Vonage’s Number Insight API within the ASP.NET Core framework.
This app allows users to perform basic, standard, and advanced lookups, providing valuable information about a phone number.
Go ahead and expand on what you've learned today. Let us know what you build on our Vonage Community Slack, or message us on X!
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