How to build a RESTful API

Question

The issue is this  I have a web application that runs on a PHP server  I d like to build a REST api for it  I did some research and I figured out that REST api uses HTTP methods  GET  POST     for certain URI s with an authentication key  not necessarily  and the information is presented back as a HTTP response with the info as XML or JSON  I d rather JSON    My question is    How do I  as the developer of the app  build those URI s  Do I need to write a PHP code at that URI    How do I build the JSON objects to return as a response

User · Answer

As simon marc said  the process is much the same as it is for you or I browsing a website  If you are comfortable with using the Zend framework  there are some easy to follow tutorials to that make life quite easy to set things up  The hardest part of building a restful api is the design of the it  and making it truly restful  think CRUD in database terms   It could be that you really want an xmlrpc interface or something else similar  What do you want this interface to allow you to do   --EDIT  Here is where I got started with restful api and Zend Framework  Zend Framework Example  In short don t use Zend rest server  it s obsolete

User · Answer

Another framework which has not been mentioned so far is Laravel  It s great for building PHP apps in general but thanks to the great router it s really comfortable and simple to build rich APIs  It might not be that slim as Slim or Sliex but it gives you a solid structure   See Aaron Kuzemchak - Simple API Development With Laravel on YouTube and  Laravel 4  A Start at a RESTful API on NetTuts

User · Answer

I know that this question is accepted and has a bit of age but this might be helpful for some people who still find it relevant  Although the outcome is not a full RESTful API the API Builder mini lib for PHP allows you to easily transform MySQL databases into web accessible JSON APIs

User · Answer

1  How do I     build those URI s  Do I need to write a PHP code at that URI    There is no standard for how an API URI scheme should be set up  but it s common to have slash-separated values  For this you can use      apiArgArray   explode      substr    SERVER  PATH INFO    1         to get an array of slash-separated values in the URI after the file name    Example  Assuming you have an API file api php in your application somewhere and you do a request for api php members 3  then  apiArgArray will be an array containing   members    3    You can then use those values to query your database or do other processing       2  How do I build the JSON objects to return as a response    You can take any PHP object and turn it into JSON with json encode  You ll also want to set the appropriate header   header  Content-Type  application json     myObject    object  array   property    gt   value        example echo json encode  myObject      outputs JSON text   All this is good for an API that returns JSON  but the next question you should ask is     3  How do I make my API RESTful    For that we ll use   SERVER  REQUEST METHOD   to get the method being used  and then do different things based on that  So the final result is something like     header  Content-Type  application json     apiArgArray   explode      substr    SERVER  PATH INFO    1     returnObject    object  array       Based on the method  use the arguments to figure out    whether you re working with an individual or a collection      then do your processing  and ultimately set  returnObject    switch    SERVER  REQUEST METHOD        case  GET          List entire collection or retrieve individual member     break    case  PUT                 Replace entire collection or member     break      case  POST                Create new member     break    case  DELETE              Delete collection or member     break    echo json encode  returnObject     Sources  https   stackoverflow com a 897311 1766230 and http   en wikipedia org wiki Representational state transfer Applied to web services

User · Answer

In 2013  you should use something like Silex or Slim  Silex example   require once   DIR        vendor autoload php      app   new Silex Application       app- gt get   hello  name    function  name  use  app         return  Hello    app- gt escape  name           app- gt run       Slim example    app   new  Slim Slim     app- gt get   hello  name   function   name        echo  Hello   name        app- gt run

User · Answer

That is pretty much the same as created a normal website   Normal pattern for a php website is    The user enter a url The server get the url  parse it and execute a action In this action  you get generate every information you need for the page You create the html php page with the info from the action The server generate a fully html page and send it back to the user   With a api  you just add a new step between 3 and 4  After 3  create a array with all information you need  Encode this array in json and exit or return this value    info   array  info 1    gt  1   info 2    gt   info 2       info n    gt  array 1 2 3    exit json encode  info      That all for the api  For the client side  you can call the api by the url  If the api work only with get call  I think it s possible to do a simply  To check  I normally use curl     info   file get contents url    info   json decode  info     But it s more common to use the curl library to perform get and post call  You can ask me if you need help with curl   Once the get the info from the api  you can do the 4  amp  5 steps   Look the php doc for json function and file get contents   curl   http   fr php net manual fr ref curl php    EDIT  No  wait  I don t get it   php API page  what do you mean by that     The api is only the creation recuperation of your project  You NEVER send directly the html result  if you re making a website  throw a api  You call the api with the url  the api return information  you use this information to create the final result    ex  you want to write a html page who say hello xxx  But to get the name of the user  you have to get the info from the api    So let s say your api have a function who have user id as argument and return the name of this user  let s say getUserNameById user id    and you call this function only on a url like your api ulr getUser id   Function getUserNameById user id       userName      call in db to get the user   exit json encode  userName       maybe return work as well      From the client side you do       username   file get contents your api url getUser 15      You should normally use curl  but it simpler for the example    So this function to this specifique url will call the api  and trigger the getUserNameById user id   whom give you the user name       lt html gt       lt body gt       lt p gt hello  lt  php echo  username   gt   lt  p gt       lt  body gt       lt  html gt    So the client never access directly the databases  that the api s role   Is that clearer

User · Answer

Here is a very simply example in simple php   There are 2 files client php  amp  api php  I put both files on the same url   http   localhost 8888   so you will have to change the link to your own url   the file can be on two different servers    This is just an example  it s very quick and dirty  plus it has been a long time since I ve done php  But this is the idea of an api    client php   lt  php       this is the client        if  isset   GET  action     amp  amp  isset   GET  id     amp  amp    GET  action       get user      if the get parameter action is get user and if the id is set  call the api to get the user information      user info   file get contents  http   localhost 8888 api php action get user amp id       GET  id        user info   json decode  user info  true         THAT IS VERY QUICK AND DIRTY           gt       lt table gt         lt tr gt           lt td gt Name   lt  td gt  lt td gt   lt  php echo  user info  last name     gt  lt  td gt         lt  tr gt         lt tr gt           lt td gt First Name   lt  td gt  lt td gt   lt  php echo  user info  first name     gt  lt  td gt         lt  tr gt         lt tr gt           lt td gt Age   lt  td gt  lt td gt   lt  php echo  user info  age     gt  lt  td gt         lt  tr gt       lt  table gt       lt a href  http   localhost 8888 client php action get userlist  alt  user list  gt Return to the user list lt  a gt     lt  php   else    else take the user list      user list   file get contents  http   localhost 8888 api php action get user list       user list   json decode  user list  true        THAT IS VERY QUICK AND DIRTY           gt       lt ul gt       lt  php foreach   user list as  user     gt         lt li gt           lt a href  lt  php echo  http   localhost 8888 client php action get user amp id      user  id      gt  alt  lt  php echo  user      user   id     gt  gt  lt  php echo  user  name     gt  lt  a gt       lt  li gt       lt  php endforeach    gt       lt  ul gt     lt  php      gt    api php   lt  php     This is the API to possibility show the user list  and show a specific user by action   function get user by id  id       user info   array          make a call in db    switch   id       case 1         user info   array  first name    gt   Marc    last name    gt   Simon    age    gt  21      let s say first name  last name  age       break      case 2         user info   array  first name    gt   Frederic    last name    gt   Zannetie    age    gt  24         break      case 3         user info   array  first name    gt   Laure    last name    gt   Carbonnel    age    gt  45         break         return  user info     function get user list        user list   array array  id    gt  1   name    gt   Simon    array  id    gt  2   name    gt   Zannetie    array  id    gt  3   name    gt   Carbonnel        call in db  here I make a list of 3 users     return  user list      possible url   array  get user list    get user      value    An error has occurred    if  isset   GET  action     amp  amp  in array   GET  action     possible url       switch    GET  action                case  get user list            value   get user list            break        case  get user           if  isset   GET  id                value   get user by id   GET  id             else            value    Missing argument           break           exit json encode  value       gt    I didn t make any call to the database for this example  but normally that is what you should do  You should also replace the  file get contents  function by  curl

[php] How to build a RESTful API?

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