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

Specifying the API


The very first thing a project usually starts with is a definition of the operations the API will expose. According to the REST principles, an operation is exposed by an HTTP method and a URI. The action performed by each operation should not contradict the natural meaning of its HTTP method. The following table specifies the operations of our API in detail:

Method

URI

Description

GET

/category

Retrieves all available categories in the catalog.

GET

/category/{category-id}/

Retrieves all the items available under a specific category.

GET 

 /category/{category-id}/{item-id} 

Retrieves an item by its ID under a specific category.

POST

/category

Creates a new category; if it exists, it will update it.

POST 

/category/{category-id}/

Creates a new item in a specified category. If the item exists, it will update it.

PUT 

 /category/{category-id} 

Updates a category.

PUT

/category/{category-id}/{item-id}

Updates an item in a specified category.

DELETE

/category/{category-id}

Deletes an existing category...