This document provides an overview of Drupal Services and building REST interfaces with it. It discusses Services architecture and moving from an RPC to REST style. Key points covered include Services 3.x being resource oriented, different content types and formatters, routing, and out-of-box resources like nodes, users, files. The document also outlines how to build a REST interface with Services, tools and resources for testing, and future directions for Services.

1. Drupal Services
Yuriy Gerasimov
email: yuri.gerasimov@gmail.com
twitter: ygerasimov
d.o.: http://drupal.org/user/257311

2. Presentation plan
What is Services for?
Building REST interface with Services
Resources out-of-box.
Services API
Future of Services

3. Architechture

4. Services
Move from RPC style to REST
REST
GET safe method (only to retrieve)
PUT and DELETE are idempotent methods (multiple
calls should have same result)

5. Services 3.x
resource oriented (CRUD = create, retrieve,
update, delete, index)
Content Type
different formatters (php, json, jsonp, xml, ...)
separate endpoints (exportable to features)
authentication

6. Content Type
Request: URL, headers, body
Content-type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
key1=value1&key2=value2&key3[0]=a&key3[1]=b&key3[2]=c
Content-type: application/json
{"key1":"value1","key2":"value2","key3":["a","b","c"]}

7. Routing
Picture from WSCCI proposal http://groups.drupal.org/node/226479

8. REST with Services
Create POST http://host/rest/node.json
Retrieve GET http://host/rest/node/5.json
Update PUT http://host/rest/node/5.json
Delete DELETE http://host/rest/node/5.json
Index GET http://host.com/rest/node.json

9. REST with Services
Action
POST http://host/rest/user/login.json
Targeted Action
POST http://host/rest/node/5/vote.json
Relation
GET http://host/rest/node/5/files.json

10. Services 3.x resources
Node resource
Taxonomy vocabulary resource (getTree)
Taxonomy term resource (selectNodes)
User resource (login, logout, register)
Comment resource (loadNodeComments,
countAll, countNew)
System resource (no CRUD) (connect,
get_variable, set_variable)

11. Services 3.x resources
File resource (CRUD) (nodeFiles)

12. Services 3.x hook_services_resources

13. Services 3.x hook_services_resources

14. Services 3.x REST server formatters
http://<your_domain>/<your_endpoint_path>/<your_resource_path>.<formatter>
Standard: php, json, jsonp, xml, yaml, bencode (see RESTServerViewBuiltIn)

15. Build REST interface
Implement CRUD functionality.
Use actions, relationships
resource/node/X/comments
Use aliases if needed.
Write tests
For public GET calls you can use Views + Views
Datasource

16. WSCCI
Use Symfony components
Context (HttpFoundation)
Rounting (HttpKernel)
Lazy loading

17. Tools & Resources
Poster https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2691
Services Handbook http://drupal.org/handbook/modules/services
Tests
A future of Services http://goodold.se/blog/tech/future-services-3x
Groups http://groups.drupal.org/services
WSCCI http://groups.drupal.org/wscci

18. Questions
Yuriy Gerasimov
email: yuri.gerasimov@gmail.com
twitter/irc: ygerasimov
d.o.: http://drupal.org/user/257311