PHP Web Services: APIs for the Modern Web

by Lorna Mitchell

Overview

Whether you’re sharing data between two internal systems or building an API so that users can access their data, this practical guide has everything you need to build APIs with PHP. Author Lorna Jane Mitchell provides lots of hands-on code samples, real-world examples, and advice based on her extensive experience to guide you through the process—from the underlying theory to methods for making your service robust.

You’ll learn how to use this language to work with JSON, XML, and other web service technologies. This updated second edition includes new tools and features that reflect PHP updates and changes on the Web.

• Explore HTTP, from the request/response cycle to its verbs, headers, and cookies
• Work with and publish webhooks—user-defined HTTP callbacks
• Determine whether JSON or XML is the best data format for your application
• Get advice for working with RPC, SOAP, and RESTful services
• Use several tools and techniques for debugging HTTP web services
• Choose the service that works best for your application, and learn how to make it robust
• Document your API—and learn how to design it to handle errors

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781491933091
Publisher:	O'Reilly Media, Incorporated
Publication date:	01/21/2016
Edition description:	2nd ed.
Pages:	178
Product dimensions:	6.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Lorna Jane Mitchell is an independent web development consultant, specializing in PHP and APIs in particular. With over 10 years of PHP development experience across a wide variety of industries, Lorna learned many lessons the hard way and always has a story to tell. Lorna is also an experienced trainer, offering training both to private clients around the world and teaching public courses. A prolific writer, Lorna writes for a number of publications, and frequently for her own blog http://lornajane.net.

Table of Contents

Preface; Conventions Used in This Book; Using Code Examples; Safari® Books Online; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: HTTP; 1.1 Clients and Servers; 1.2 Making HTTP Requests; Chapter 2: HTTP Verbs; 2.1 Making GET Requests; 2.2 Making POST Requests; 2.3 Using Other HTTP Verbs; Chapter 3: Headers; 3.1 Request and Response Headers; 3.2 Common HTTP Headers; 3.3 Custom Headers; Chapter 4: Cookies; 4.1 Cookie Mechanics; 4.2 Working with Cookies in PHP; Chapter 5: JSON; 5.1 When to Choose JSON; 5.2 Handling JSON with PHP; 5.3 JSON in Existing APIs; Chapter 6: XML; 6.1 When to Choose XML; 6.2 XML in PHP; 6.3 XML in Existing APIs; Chapter 7: RPC and SOAP Services; 7.1 RPC; 7.2 SOAP; Chapter 8: REST; 8.1 RESTful URLs; 8.2 Resource Structure and Hypermedia; 8.3 Data and Media Types; 8.4 HTTP Features in REST; 8.5 Additional Headers in RESTful Services; 8.6 RESTful versus Useful; Chapter 9: Debugging Web Services; 9.1 Debug Output; 9.2 Logging; 9.3 Debugging from Outside Your Application; 9.4 Finding the Tool for the Job; Chapter 10: Making Service Design Decisions; 10.1 Service Type Decisions; 10.2 Consider Data Formats; 10.3 Customizable Experiences; 10.4 Pick Your Defaults; Chapter 11: Building a Robust Service; 11.1 Consistency Is Key; 11.2 Making Design Decisions for Robustness; Chapter 12: Error Handling in APIs; 12.1 Output Format; 12.2 Meaningful Error Messages; 12.3 What to Do When You See Errors; Chapter 13: Documentation; 13.1 Overview Documentation; 13.2 API Documentation; 13.3 Interactive Documentation; 13.4 Tutorials and the Wider Ecosystem; A Guide to Common Status Codes; Common HTTP Headers; Colophon;