3. Building a Typical Web API | RESTful Web API Design with Node.js

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RESTful Web API Design with Node.js - Second Edition

By : Bojinov

4.1 (13)

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js

4.1 (13)

By: Bojinov

Overview of this book

In this era of cloud computing, every data provisioning solution is built in a scalable and fail-safe way. Thus, when building RESTful services, the right choice for the underlying platform is vital. Node.js, with its asynchronous, event-driven architecture, is exactly the right choice to build RESTful APIs. This book will help you enrich your development skills to create scalable, server-side, RESTful applications based on the Node.js platform. Starting with the fundamentals of REST, you will understand why RESTful web services are better data provisioning solution than other technologies. You will start setting up a development environment by installing Node.js, Express.js, and other modules. Next, you will write a simple HTTP request handler and create and test Node.js modules using automated tests and mock objects. You will then have to choose the most appropriate data storage type, having options between a key/value or document data store, and also you will implement automated tests for it. This module will evolve chapter by chapter until it turns into a full-fledged and secure Restful service.

Preface

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Free Chapter

1. REST – What You Did Not Know

1. REST – What You Did Not Know

REST fundamentals

The REST goals

Working with WADL

Summary

2. Getting Started with Node.js

2. Getting Started with Node.js

Installing Node.js

Node Package Manager

Deploying an application

Microsoft Azure

Self-test questions

Summary

3. Building a Typical Web API

3. Building a Typical Web API

Specifying the API

Implementing routes

Querying the API

Content negotiation

Cross-origin resource sharing

API versioning

Self-test questions

Summary

4. Using NoSQL Databases

4. Using NoSQL Databases

Key/value store - LevelDB

Document store - MongoDB

Database modeling with Mongoose

Testing a Mongoose model with Mocha

Creating a user-defined model around a Mongoose model

Wiring up a NoSQL database module to Express

Content delivery network

Self-test questions

Summary

5. Implementing a Fully-Fledged RESTful Service

5. Implementing a Fully-Fledged RESTful Service

Extensibility and versioning

Working with arbitrary data

Linking

Implementing paging and filtering

Caching

Supplying the Cache-Control header in Express applications

Discovering and exploring RESTful services

Self-test questions

Summary

6. Keeping the Bad Guys Out

6. Keeping the Bad Guys Out

Authentication

Authorization

Transport Layer Security

Self-test questions

Summary

Implementing routes

In Node.js terms, a route is a binding between a URI and function. The Express framework provides built-in support for routing. An express object instance contains functions named after each HTTP verb: get, post, put, and delete. They have the following syntax: function(uri, handler);. They are used to bind a handler function to a specific HTTP action executed over a URI. The handler function usually takes two arguments: request and response. Let's see it with a simple Hello route application:

var express = require('express'); 
var app = express(); 
 
app.get('/hello', function(request, response){ 
  response.send('Hello route'); 
}); 
 
app.listen(3000);

Running this sample at localhost and accessing http://localhost:3000/hello will result in calling your handler function and it will respond saying Hello route, but routing can give you much more. It allows you to define a URI with parameters; for example, let's use /hello/:name...

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