Book Image

Beginning API Development with Node.js

By : Anthony Nandaa
3.5 (2)
Book Image

Beginning API Development with Node.js

3.5 (2)
By: Anthony Nandaa

Overview of this book

Using the same framework to build both server and client-side applications saves you time and money. This book teaches you how you can use JavaScript and Node.js to build highly scalable APIs that work well with lightweight cross-platform client applications. It begins with the basics of Node.js in the context of backend development, and quickly leads you through the creation of an example client that pairs up with a fully authenticated API implementation. By the end of the book, you’ll have the skills and exposure required to get hands-on with your own API development project.
Table of Contents (9 chapters)

Understanding Requests


Let's have a look at the concept of request and the different HTTP request methods.

A Look at HTTP Request Methods

Having set up our server, we are ready to start building our API. The routes are basically what constitute the actual API.

We will first look at HTTP request methods (sometimes referred to as HTTP verbs), then apply them to our API using a simple todo list example. We will look at five major ones:

  • GET: Requests a representation of the specified resource. Requests using GET should only retrieve data, and should not be used to make changes to resources.
  • POST: Is used to submit an entry to a specified resource, often causing a change of state.
  • PUT: Replaces all current representations of the target resource with the request payload.
  • DELETE: Deletes the specified resource.
  • PATCH: Used to apply partial modifications to a resource.

In the following exercises, we're going to rewrite our previous code where we had hardcoded our data so that we can work with real and dynamic...