GreyWoulf / rest-demo

REST

What are we learning today?

• We are going to talk about what exactly is REST, what is a RESTful API, and what makes an api RESTful?

• Demo examples of RESTful endpoints

-Query String Parameters - What they are - How are they useful - Breaking the anatomy of a Query String Paramater

-Demo of an example using Query String parameters.

REST

• representational state transfer

• is a way to organize our routes, in our server there is a particular way that we can write our endpoints that follows a RESTful pattern. -Scalable - we can re-use routes for multiple and various situations -Easy to read and understand

• RESTful pattern
  

  • 1.verbs
    

  verbs - http methods Create - .post Read - .get Update - .put Destroy - .delete

  app.verb

  • 2.nouns - only reserved for the url
    

  • ex: Restful
    app.get('/dogs/', async (req, res, next) => { try { res.send('arf'); } catch (error) { next(error) } });

  • ex: NOT RESTFUL
    app.get('/get-dogs/', async (req, res, next) => { try { res.send('arf'); } catch (error) { next(error) } });

  • 3.broad -> specific
    

  app.get('/animals/dogs/', async (req, res, next) => { try { res.send('arf'); } catch (error) { next(error) } });

Query String Parameter

• utilize the url, by capturing a query string, denoted by everything that comes after a ? -it gets digested into your server as a req.query in the form of an object {}

• anatomy of a query string req.query = { key: value, key2: value2 }

https://example.com/items?key=value&key2=value

• walk through an example honda cars toyota cars

app.get(“/cars/honda/:model”, (req, res, next) => { … } )

app.get(“/cars/toyota/:model”, (req, res, next) => { … } )

...etc

https://example.com/items?honda=black

app.get("/cars/", async (req, res, next) =>{ req.query // {honda: black} const blackHondas = Cars.findAll({ where: {req.query.honda} }) } )

• code out an endpoint that takes advantage of a query string

-1. First we are going to query all dogs -2. What if we just want to query all black dogs?

- example of req.query -> how to 

-3. We can keep our code extra dry by utilizing query strings instead of writing a second .get endpoint to get only black dogs.

Q: What if we want the option to be able to share the endpoint to query all dogs, and also in the case where there might be a query string?
A: We can check to see if req.query has any key value pairs
    - If yes, then use req.query
    - If no, then bypass req.query and findAll()

    -We can convert the req.query object into an array.
    arrays length
    -If the array is empty, we bypass
    -If the array contains keys, then we go forward with the req.query

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