Skip to main content

REST API's

This week on my CS Journey, I want to look closely at the topic of REST API Design. I know We have been doing several activities regarding the topic in class and the homework assignment is associated with it, however, I wanted to be very knowledgeable on the topic, so I decided to do more research. REST is an acronym for Representational State Transfer. A REST API is a way for two computer systems to communicate over HTTP in a similar way to web browsers and servers do. Let start by looking at what An API is,  An API is an application programming interface. It is a set of rules that allow programs to talk to each other. The developer generally creates the API on the server and allows the client to talk to it and the REST determines how an API should look like.

Now let’s look at the anatomy of a request is, An API request has four main important parts: The endpoint, The method, The headers, and The data or body. When an API interacts with another system, the touchpoints of that communication are considered endpoints. Each endpoint is the location from which APIs can access the resources they need to carry out to do their function. The way APIs work is using  “requests” and “responses.” Meaning that each URL is called a request while the data sent back to you is called a response.

Generally, when it comes to methods it has five types. Which are: GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE. These methods provide meaning for the request you’re making. They are also used to perform four possible actions that are Create, Read, Update, and Delete also known as CRUD. Next, the Headers are used to provide information to both the client and the server. It can be used for many purposes, such as authentication and providing information about body content. Lastly, the body or the data is what contains information you want to be sent to the server. This option is only used with POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE requests.

Overall, I learned a lot from this blog. The source I used explained the topic very well. I highly recommend everyone to check it out, because it has a variety of examples and documents that you need to know about REST APIs to be able to read the API documentation and use them effectively. It also goes deep into the methods and the request meaning of each of them, I think it is very important to understand those concepts because companies all over the world are using APIs to transfer vital information, processes, transactions, and more.

 

Source: https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/01/understanding-using-rest-api/

            https://www.sitepoint.com/developers-rest-api/

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

REST API Design

This week on my CS Journey I want to focus on REST API Design. In my last blog, I talked about how an API request works and how to be able to read the API documentation and use it effectively. In this blog, I will be emphasizing briefly the key constraints to REST API design. There are six important constraints to the design. Which are: Client-Server, Stateless, Cache, Uniform Interface, Layered System, and Code on Demand. Together, these make up the theory of REST. Starting with client-server constraint is the concept that the client and the server should be separate from each other and allowed to evolve individually and independently. In other words, a developer should be able to make changes to an application whether on the data structure or the database design side at the same time it is not impacting the client server side. Next REST APIs are stateless, meaning that calls can be made independently, and each call contains all the data necessary to complete itself successfully. ...

Blog Post #1 JUnit 5 Testing

In class, we have been learning about testing with Junit 5 and doing assignments related to it. After watching the video for the advanced part of the assignment,  I decided that I wanted to research further into the topic for my first blog post. So, what is Junit? In a short answer, JUnit is a Java open sources unit testing framework that is used to write and run repeatable automated tests. JUnit 5 Is the updated version of the highly popular testing library that is Junit 4 which I’m sure you all have heard of it. Junit 5 was released in 2017 that adds good use for Java 8 features. In fact, JUnit 5 requires Java 8 JDK or higher to work. While researching a few of the key differences between the two versions are Junit 5 is composed of 3 sub-projects JUnit Platform, JUnit Jupiter, and JUnit Vintage. The Assertions and Annotations have been changed, and most importantly Junit 5 adds the support of the lambda expression in which we went over in class. One of the blogs I read recommen...

Testing with Mockito

During class, we have been doing many testing methods including Junit 5 and for the past two weeks we have been using Mockito, so for today’s blog, I want to focus more on the framework and testing with Mockito. Before we get started let us talk about what is mocking. Mocking is a process of developing the objects that act as the mock or clone of the real objects. In another word, mocking is a technique where mock objects are used instead of real objects. The purpose is to isolate and focus on the code being tested. Mock uses objects such as Fakes, Stubs, and mocks. A fake object has working implementation but takes shortcuts which makes them not suitable for production. Stub object usually does not respond to anything outside that is programmed in for the test. Mocks are objects that are preprogrammed with expectations which form a specification of the call that is called to receive. Now let us move on to what Mockito is, Mockito is a java based mocking framework ...