This document discusses how to build RESTful APIs with CakePHP. It explains REST concepts and shows how to configure routes and controllers to support REST actions like GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. Code examples are provided for defining routes, controllers that handle REST actions, and modifying views to output different formats like XML. Customizing the default resource mapping with Router::resourceMap() is also covered.

1. REST API & CakePHP
Anuchit Chalothorn
anuchit@redlinesoft.net

2. Agenda
● REST
● Route
● Resource Mapping

3. REST
a style of software architecture for distributed
systems such as the WWW. The REST
language uses nouns and verbs, and has an
emphasis on readability. Unlike SOAP, REST
does not require a message header to and
from a service provider.

4. Concept
● the base URI for the web service, such as
http://example.com/resources/
● the Internet media type of the data
supported by the web service.
● the set of operations supported by the web
service using HTTP methods (e.g., GET,
PUT, POST, or DELETE).
● The API must be hypertext driven.

5. Example URI
● http://example.org/user/
● http://example.org/user/anuchit
● http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=xxx

6. Example methods
Resource GET PUT POST DELETE
http://example.org/user list collection replace create delete
http://example.org/user/rose list data replace/ create ? / create delete

7. Simple Diagram
Requester Provider
GET /user/anuchit HTTP/1.1
200 with some data

8. No "official" standard
There is no "official" standard for RESTful web
services, This is because REST is an
architectural style, unlike SOAP, which is a
protocol.

9. Shortcut - Web Services design
● Choose method old style, new style
● Look around an eco-system
● Who'll using your services
● How to implementation
● Design and document

10. REST & CakePHP
The fastest way to get up and running with
REST is to add a few lines to your routes.php
file The Router object features a method called
mapResources(), that is used to set up a
number of default routes for REST access to
your controllers.

11. Route
If we wanted to allow REST access to a recipe
database, we’d do something like this:
//In app/Config/routes.php...
Router::mapResources('recipes');
Router::parseExtensions();

12. HTTP REQUEST Methods
HTTP Format URL.Format Controller action invoked
GET /recipes.format RecipesController::index()
POST /recipes.format RecipesController::add()
PUT /recipes/123.format RecipesController::edit(123)
DELETE /recipes/123.format RecipesController::delete(123)
POST /recipes/123.format RecipesController::edit(123)

13. REST & CakePHP
The fastest way to get up and running with
REST is to add a few lines to your routes.php
file The Router object features a method called
mapResources(), that is used to set up a
number of default routes for REST access to
your controllers.

14. Controller (1)
A basic controller might look something like this
// Controller/RecipesController.php
class RecipesController extends AppController {
public $components = array('RequestHandler');
public function index() {
$recipes = $this->Recipe->find('all');
$this->set(array(
'recipes' => $recipes,
'_serialize' => array('recipes')
));
}

15. Controller (2)
public function view($id) {
$recipe = $this->Recipe->findById($id);
$this->set(array(
'recipe' => $recipe,
'_serialize' => array('recipe')
));
}

16. Controller (3)
public function edit($id) {
$this->Recipe->id = $id;
if ($this->Recipe->save($this->request->data)) {
$message = 'Saved';
} else {
$message = 'Error';
}
$this->set(array(
'message' => $message,
'_serialize' => array('message')
));
}

17. Controller (4)
public function delete($id) {
if ($this->Recipe->delete($id)) {
$message = 'Deleted';
} else {
$message = 'Error';
}
$this->set(array(
'message' => $message,
'_serialize' => array('message')
));
}

18. View
Since we’ve added a call to Router::
parseExtensions(), the CakePHP router is
already primed to serve up different views
based on different kinds of requests.

19. Modify View (1)
If we wanted to modify the data before it is
converted into XML we should not define the
_serialize view variable and instead use view
files. We place the REST views for our
RecipesController inside app/View/recipes/xml.

20. Modify View (2)
// app/View/Recipes/xml/index.ctp
// Do some formatting and manipulation on
// the $recipes array.
$xml = Xml::fromArray(array('response' => $recipes));
echo $xml->asXML();

21. Resource Mapping
If the default REST routes don’t work for your
application, you can modify them using Router::
resourceMap().
Router::resourceMap(array(
array('action' => 'index', 'method' => 'GET', 'id' => false),
array('action' => 'view', 'method' => 'GET', 'id' => true),
array('action' => 'add', 'method' => 'POST', 'id' => false),
array('action' => 'edit', 'method' => 'PUT', 'id' => true),
array('action' => 'delete', 'method' => 'DELETE', 'id' => true),
array('action' => 'update', 'method' => 'POST', 'id' => true)
));

22. Thank You