Rest – Strategy for Website Talking to API on Same Server

apidesignrest

I have a RESTful API that allows retrieval of data through requests such as GET http://example.com/users/id/1 (Coded following this tutorial).

The code igniter controller looks like this:

class Example_api extends REST_Controller {

function user_get()
{
    $data = array('returned: '. $this->get('id'));
    $this->response($data);
}

This API was written specifically for the reason that I should be able to access the same code logic from the web frontend as well as mobile apps etc. Now, the mobile app is easy to write but I want to find the strategy for using the API from the web site. The website is essentially sitting on the same server that offers this API and it does not seem right to me to make an HTTP request to the API from code and go through the network again.

So, the question is, how do I use the API from the php code in the same site without going through the network.

Best Answer

It sounds like both the API and the website share a common language (PHP). In such a scenario I often find that the functionality used by the API can often be abstracted out into a less API specific object that other solutions (like the website) can also utilize.

This object would serve as a shared interface for the website and the API. Very little functionality then needs to live in the API code as it is simply operating as a translation layer between HTTP requests and the object.

It also saves the website from having to make network calls to an API and allows it to interact with the object more naturally.

If your API's functionality is relatively simple this runs the risk of being an over-architected approach so you'll need to consider if this is necessary and maintainable in your specific situation.

Related Solutions

RESTful API – Should It Provide Data for an Entire Form?

I lean towards very simple, narrowly-focused endpoints. I would expect a request at some location like /sales_users which returns all sales users.

GET /sales_users:

[
    {"id": 1, "name": "Anna Graham"},
    {"id": 2, "name": "Dick Mussell"},
    {"id": 3, "name": "Ford Parker"},
    {"id": 4, "name": "Ferris Wheeler"},
    {"id": 5, "name": "Jo King"}
]

Similarly, if you are going to have a list of categories, I would add a separate endpoint for that.

GET /categories:

[
    {"id": 1, "name": "Category 1"},
    {"id": 2, "name": "Category 2"},
    {"id": 3, "name": "Category 3"},
    {"id": 4, "name": "Category 4"},
    {"id": 5, "name": "Category 5"}
]

I would not build a GET /product/new. Rather, I would build a form in your app to handle adding new products which knows the appropriate requests to populate its lists (e.g., GET /categories, GET /sales_users, etc.).

REST Java EE – Best Way to Consume REST Service Within Servlet on Same Server

You have 2 options :

Consuming the REST API using AJAX requests. In this case, your web client will return to the web browser a "static" page, that will retrieve all the needed data using AJAX requests to the REST API. Using this approach, you will transport the main processing in the client side (client meaning the web browser of end users). For an easier implementation of AJAX requests and related concepts, such as client-side validation and transformation of data, you can leverage various JS frameworks (such as jQuery, Angular JS etc).

Disadvantages: processing load in client instead of server might degrade application's performance, security issues in client in case of bad design

Consuming the REST API using back-end requests. In this case, you will make the necessary data loading using the REST API from back-end calls. After you have loaded necessary data and dynamically generated the whole page, you will return it to the web browser. In this case, the Javascript used will be minimal and only used for animations (and not data loading). There are various libraries-frameworks that will make your job easier for creating the API calls and consuming the responses. Some of them are JAX-RS client, Unirest, Resty

In order to avoid the architectural pattern Client -> Servlet -> REST API, you could design your application in such a way, that the service is returning various forms of responses (JSON-REST, HTML etc.). In this way, after loading the data, depending on the type of the client, you could choose the format of the response and use the suitable service.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

RESTful API – Should It Provide Data for an Entire Form?

REST Java EE – Best Way to Consume REST Service Within Servlet on Same Server

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