wiki:BluePrintREST

Version 9 (modified by Fran Boon, 16 years ago) ( diff )

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RESTful API

This page hosts detailed specifications for ​Blueprint for the RESTful API.

Basic approach for the S3 architecture is to have a Web Services backend & a Javascript client front end. RESTful APIs make this easier.

Web2Py generates URLs in this format: 

/application/ccontroller/function/arg1/arg2?var1=x,var2=y

These are generally fairly RESTful anyway, e.g.: 

/sahana/gis/add_feature
/sahana/gis/list_features
/sahana/gis/display_feature/1
/sahana/gis/update_feature/1

Is there much benefit in chaning to URLs like: 

/sahana/gis/feature/create
/sahana/gis/feature/list
/sahana/gis/feature/list_add
/sahana/gis/feature/display/x
/sahana/gis/feature/update/x

We want to be able extending this for exporting raw data in other formats, e.g. using the optional vars: 

/sahana/gis/feature/display/x?format=[json|xml|csv]

Web2Py already supports export as JSON, CSV & RTF.

It would be best for us to add support to the framework to make it easy for module writers to have this functionality within their controllers.

Discussion of changes to Web2Py to make it more RESTful:

NB Web2Py currently doesn't support HTTP PUT/DELETE/UPDATE (only GET).

Web Services

Allows multiple client UIs

REST instead of SOAP

Less bloat, more GIS-friendly.

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