using a DTO in ASP.NET Web API

Refactoring my experiment which yielded 7 + 13 + 22 = 42, I introduce a data transfer object in lieu of serializing anonymous types:

namespace Learning.Models
{
   public class CornyThing
   {
      public int Foo { get; set; }
      public int Bar { get; set; }
      public int Composition { get; set; }
      public string Explanation { get; set; }
   }
}

 
 

The Web API Controller gets trimmed way down...

using System.Web.Http;
using Learning.Models;
namespace Learning.Controllers
{
   public class ExperimentController : ApiController
   {
      public CornyThing Put(int id, [FromBody]CornyThing value)
      {
         value.Composition = id + value.Foo + value.Bar;
         value.Explanation = id + " + " + value.Foo + " + " + value.Bar + " = " +
               value.Composition;
         return value;
      }
   }
}

 
 

Finally, you may see below that I am talking to the Controller above at a domain name as suggested below. If I put a copy of the code base to IIS8 Express and then run the code below from Cassini I am able to make it all work as both sides understand what the CornyThing object is. I can also imagine how this sort of sharing could be painful and come with maintenance overhead. Hmmmm.

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Web.Mvc;
using Learning.Models;
namespace Learning.Controllers
{
   public class HomeController : Controller
   {
      public ActionResult Index()
      {
         string status;
         HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
         client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://www.dummygunk.com/");
         client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new
               MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
         CornyThing whatever = new CornyThing() { Foo = 13, Bar = 22 };
         var response = client.PutAsJsonAsync("api/experiment/7", whatever).Result;
         if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
         {
            CornyThing dto = response.Content.ReadAsAsync<CornyThing>().Result;
            status = dto.Explanation;
         } else {
            status = "Fail!";
         }
         ViewBag.Status = status;
         return View();
      }
   }
}