REST API: platform API

How to run a web application as a REST API? This is where the API Platform library comes in handy. Here I will describe how to make a REST APi using Symfony and the API Platform library.

The REST API has been popular for a while now. Some places have already seen the wave of this technology, some don't even know what it is yet. It's nothing more than using the HTTP protocol as the basis for defining a standard. More about REST on Wikipedia.

When there is a standard, libraries are created that allow the technology to be used efficiently. Efficiently means that:

• the design of the technology/library will be better because more people have been involved
• I don't have to re-write what's already done
• someone maintains the library
• more people have seen the code

This allows the programmer to focus on learning the technology, the library, and implementing the technology in his application.

One of the REST API implementations for PHP is API Platform, which is primarily developed for the Symphony framework.

Rather than going into a lengthy description of what and how, I'll show a few examples and details of the usage are in the video at the end of this article. For more detailed information I recommend wikipedia, google and documentation.

Requirements

To get started you will need:

• composer
• php7
• symphones, doctrine
• database - e.g. mysql

Use

How to get started with REST and using the Platform API? Simply here is a small demo.

Setting up a project:

$ composer create-project symfony/skeleton bookshop-api
$ cd bookshop-api

$ composer req api

Set up the database connection:

$ export DATABASE_URL=mysql://db_user:db_password@127.0.0.1:3306/db_name

Create a database and a database user with rights:

MariaDB [(none)]> create database db_name;
MariaDB [(none)]> create user db_user@localhost identified by 'db_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON db_name. * TO 'db_user'@'localhost';


MariaDB [(none)]> flush privileges;
$ bin/console doctrine:schema:create

Start the application:

$ php -S *1:8000 -t public

The Symfony application is then available at:

http://192.165.85.12:8000

The API is available at:

http://192.165.85.12:8000/api

Create according to the two already defined entity files:

bin/console doctrine:schema:update --force

We will add annotations to the PHP code for the entity:

use ApiPlatform\Core\Annotation\ApiResource;
/**
 * ...
 *
 * @ApiResource
 */
 

And now we can test the API via POST and GET HTTP requests on the URL with the visual API presentation.

{
  "isbn": "9781782164104",
  "title": "Persistence in PHP with the Doctrine ORM",
  "description": "This book is designed for PHP developers ... better understanding of Persistence and ORM,
  "author": "Kévin Dunglas",
  "publicationDate": "2013-12-01"
}

{
    "book": "/books/1",
    "rating": 5,
    "body": "Interesting book!",
    "author": "Kévin",
    "publicationDate": "September 21, 2016"
}

Video

Live-stream with a practical deployment demonstration:

Resources

resource and documentation api platforms