Building a
RESTful API with
(and friends)
Bio
I'm Tom: a software developer with 10 years experience building web and mobile apps.
My professional career includes:
Co-founded startup, built web-based touch-screen apps.
Head of mobile web at Bristol-based mobile app development agency.
Founded consultancy, specialising in JavaScript development and training.
Find me everywhere as @fiznool
Why APIs?
A consistent interface to your data and logic.
Why REST?
A consistent design for your API.
GET /api/dogs
GET /api/dogs/1
POST /api/dogs
PUT /api/dogs/1
DELETE /api/dogs/1
Why node.js?
Non-blocking, event-driven architecture
FAST for short, sharp connections: ideal for APIs
Why express.js?
Minimal framework for building web servers.
Supports both view based (HTML)
and data-based (JSON/XML) servers.
Very popular, strong community.
REST 101
Request resources via URLs and HTTP methods:
Respond with status code and data:
GET /api/dogs GET /api/dogs:id POST /api/dogs PUT /api/dogs/:id DELETE /api/dogs/:id
200 OK
{
"name": "Benji",
"breed": "labrador"
}
Use JSON.
Demo Time!
Follow along?
git clone https://github.com/fiznool/restful-api-basics
cd restful-api-basics
npm install
npm run watchSummary
node.js is very well suited for building APIs
express.js is a popular framework to assist in building RESTful APIs
APIs provide a useful interface for consuming your data from a wide variety of devices
Want More?
Covers authentication, logging, exception reporting, deployment strategies and more
Come and say hello if you want to learn more :-)
I'm running a course in August which dives deeper into building a RESTful API with express.js
Level Complete!
Building a RESTful API with node.js
By Tom Spencer
