Taking Care of The REST - Creating your own RESTful API Server using Restler 2.0

TAKING CARE OF THE REST
Creating your own RESTful API Server

Monday, June 20, 2011

WHAT’S HAPPENING?

‣ We are in the Middle of a Revolution

‣ Devices and Tablets are taking over and changing the way we do things

‣ New devices and capabilities are arriving as we speak


WHAT THIS MEANS TO US, DEVELOPERS?

‣ More platforms to Explore

‣ Thus, more opportunities to Monetize

‣ Devices Divide, Developers Rule!


HOW TO KEEP UP AND EXPAND ASAP?
‣ Create your API Server to serve data
and some logic
‣ Create Hybrid Applications if possible
‣ HTML5
‣ Native (PhoneGap, Custom etc)

‣ Use cross-platform tools
‣ Adobe Flash, Flex, and AIR
‣ Titanium, Mosync etc

‣ Use least common denominator


WHY TO CREATE YOUR OWN API SERVER?
‣ It has the following Advantages
• It will serve as the remote model for your
apps
• It can hold some business logic for all your
apps
• It can be consumed from Web/Mobile/Desktop
• It can be exposed to 3rd party developers
• It can serve data in diﬀerent formats to best
suite the device performance


HOW TO CREATE YOUR OWN API SERVER?
‣ Leverage on HTTP protocol
‣ Use REST (Representational State
Transfer)
‣ Use diﬀerent formats
• Json (JavaScript Object Notation)
• XML (eXtended Markup Language)
• Plist (XML/Binary Property List)
• Amf (Action Messaging Format)


INTRODUCING LURACAST RESTLER
‣ Easy to use RESTful API Server
‣ Light weight Micro-framework
‣ Supports many formats with two way
auto conversion
‣ Written in PHP
‣ Free
‣ Open source (LGPL)


IF YOU KNOW OBJECT ORIENTED PHP

‣ You already know how to use RESTLER

‣ Its that simple


GETTING STARTED
Creating a hello world example in 3 steps


STEP-1 CREATE YOUR CLASS
<?php
class Simple { ‣ Create a class and deﬁne its
! function index() {
! ! return 'Hello World!';
methods
! }
! function sum($n1, $n2) { ‣ Save it in root of your web site
! ! return $n1+$n2;
! } and name it in lower case
} with .php extension
simple.php


STEP-2 COPY RESTLER

‣ Copy restler.php to the same web
restler.php root

‣ It contains all the needed classes
and interfaces


STEP-3 CREATE GATEWAY
<?php
spl_autoload_register();
$r = new Restler();
$r->addAPIClass('Simple');
$r->handle();
index.php
‣ Create index.php
‣ Add Simple as the API class
‣ Create an instance of Restler
‣ Call the handle() method
class


CONSUMING OUR API
Understanding how url mapping works


URL MAPPING

base_path/{gateway}/{class_name}
base_path/index.php/simple
mapped to the result of index() method in Simple class


URL MAPPING

base_path/{gateway}/{class_name}/{method_name}
base_path/index.php/simple/sum
mapped to the result of sum() method in Simple class


ADVANCED URL MAPPING
‣ Use .htaccess ﬁle to remove DirectoryIndex index.php
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
the index.php from the url ! RewriteEngine On
! RewriteRule ^$ index.php [QSA,L]
(http://rest.ler/simple/sum) ! RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
! RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
! RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
</IfModule>
‣ Pass an empty string as the
second parameter for <?php
addAPIClass() method spl_autoload_register();
(http://rest.ler/sum) $r = new Restler();
$r->addAPIClass('Simple','');
$r->handle();
‣ These are just conventions, we
can use a javadoc style /**
comment to conﬁgure * @url GET math/add
(http://rest.ler/math/add) */function sum($n1, $n2) {
! return $n1+$n2;
}

PASSING PARAMETERS

.../{class_name}/{param1}/{param2}
.../simple/4/5
parameters are passed in order as url itself


PASSING PARAMETERS

.../{class_name}?param1=value&param2=value
.../simple?n1=4&n2=5
named parameters passed as query string


RETURNING COMPLEX DATA
<?php
class Simple {
! function index() {
‣ Restler can handle all the
! ! return 'Hello World!'; following PHP types
! }
! function sum($n1, $n2) {
! ! return array('sum'=>$n1+$n2);
! } ✓Number
}

✓Boolean (True | False)

✓String

✓Indexed/Associative array

✓Objects


SUPPORTING FORMATS
<?php
$r = new Restler(); ‣ Step1 - Copy the format ﬁle(s)
$r->setSupportedFormats( ‣ Step2 - Call setSupportedFormats()
'XmlFormat','JsonFormat' method and pass the formats
);
$r->handle();
‣ Restler supports the following
formats
- JSON
- XML
- Plist
- AMF
- YAML


PROTECTING SOME OF THE API
<?php
class SimpleAuth implements iAuthenticate{
! function __isAuthenticated() {
! ! return $_GET['token']=='178261dsjdkjho8f' ? TRUE : FALSE;
! }
}

<?php
$r = new Restler(); ‣ Step1 - Create an Auth Class
$r->setSupportedFormats( implementing iAuthenicate interface
'XmlFormat','JsonFormat'
);
$r->addAuthenticationClass('SimpleAuth'); ‣ Step2 - Call addAuthenticationClass()
$r->handle();
method and pass that class
protected function sum($n1, $n2) { ‣ Simply change the methods to be
! return array('sum'=>$n1+$n2);
} protected as protected methods


USING HTTP METHODS & CRUD

<?php
class User {
! $dp = new DataProvider('User'); ‣ GET - Retrieve
! function get() {
! ! return $this->dp->getAll();
! }
! function post($data) { ‣ POST - Create
! ! return $this->dp->create($data);
! }
! function put($idx, $data) {
! ! return $this->dp->update($idx, $data);
‣ PUT - Update
! }
! function delete($idx, $data) {
! ! return $this->dp->delete($idx, $data); ‣ DELETE - Delete
! }
}


REAL WORLD RESTLER EXAMPLE


ABOUT LURACAST


Taking Care of The REST - Creating your own RESTful API Server using Restler 2.0

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