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

Endpoint URLs and HTTP status codes best practices


Each RESTful API operation is a combination of an HTTP request against a URL and an appropriate HTTP method.

When executed, each operation will return a status code, indicating whether the invocation has been successful or not. Successful invocation is indicated by a HTTP 2XX status code, while operations that are not executed correctly indicate this with erroneous status code—4XX if the error is at client side, or 5xx when the server fails to process a valid request.

Having a well-specified API is vital for its adoption. Such specification should not only completely enumerate the status codes of each operation, but should also specify the expected data format, that is, its supported media types.

The following table defines how the Express.js Router will expose the API operations, and it should serve as a reference specification for it:

Method

URI

Media type

Description

Status Code

GET

/catalog

application/json

Returns all the items in the catalog.

...