Book Image

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 - Third Edition

By : Valentin Bojinov
Book Image

RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 - Third Edition

By: Valentin Bojinov

Overview of this book

When building RESTful services, it is really important to choose the right framework. Node.js, with its asynchronous, event-driven architecture, is exactly the right choice for building RESTful APIs. This third edition of RESTful Web API Design with Node.js 10 will teach you to create scalable and rich RESTful applications based on the Node.js platform. You will be introduced to the latest NPM package handler and understand how to use it to customize your RESTful development process. You will begin by understanding the key principle that makes an HTTP application a RESTful-enabled application. After writing a simple HTTP request handler, you will create and test Node.js modules using automated tests and mock objects; explore using the NoSQL database, MongoDB, to store data; and get to grips with using self-descriptive URLs. You’ll learn to set accurate HTTP status codes along with understanding how to keep your applications backward-compatible. Also, while implementing a full-fledged RESTful service, you will use Swagger to document the API and implement automation tests for a REST-enabled endpoint with Mocha. Lastly, you will explore some authentication techniques to secure your application.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Installing Node.js


Let's start our journey through Node.js with a Node.js installation. Installers are available for both Windows and macOS at https://nodejs.org/en/download/.  At the time of writing, Node.js 10 has just been released as the current version, and is about to become the next Long Term Support version, in August 2018. Linux users can either build Node.js from the available Linux binaries or make use of their package manager, as Node.js is available with most of the popular package repositories for different Linux distributions. For instance, Ubuntu and other Debian-based distributions should first point to the latest Node.js 10 package and then install via the apt-get command from the shell:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install nodejs

If you decide to go with an installer available for macOS or Windows, a wizard will guide you through a rather typical installation procedure, where you will have to accept the Node.js license agreement...