API basics

I’m doing some API learning and developing and sharing my progress as I go.  My goal is to help other n00bs like me make easy progress into understanding the whole ReST and API thing through practical application.

I’m no expert, as many will attest to (hi mum!), and I’m standing on the shoulders of giants who have gone before blazing an API trail.  Here’s some ViewYonder blog pages where I’m tracking my progress:

• APIs – this is a page about the people, the artefacts and code around APIs.  A positive cornucopia.
• Team API – this is where I’m developing my little project from design to test the various bits of API.
• Code – here’s where the code is going.  The code is actually on github.com, but you can see it here.

I’m using Ruby as the language, and in the early days I’m hand coding the API using Sinatra routes in response to specific HTTP verbs (POST, GET, PUT, DELETE plus others) and send the right HTTP responses.

The model, in the beginning, is just a hash of a simple Person class.

Next steps are to add authentication, because that looks like a doozy.

Subsequent steps are to add persistency through Data Mapper ORB, and extend the resource model.

I have three specific use cases for the next (realistic) rev of this project, just need to choose which one.

If you wonder: “who gives a damn about APIs” then you need to read two books.  Whilst this exercise is larger technical, the larger purpose is not, as you will understand if you know these books:

• APIs: A Strategy Guide
• The Age of the Platform