Rails is an MVC framework that facilitates the use of web standards such as JSON and XML for data transfer, and HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for display and user interfacing. In this course, you will learn the basics for creating an API, how to use Postman, and how to implement API authentication.
Learning Objectives
Building an API
- start the course
- create an API application
- add rails-api to an existing project
Tools
- use Postman to test results
API Endpoints
- work with endpoints for INDEX and CREATE
- work with endpoint for SHOW, UPDATE, and DESTROY
JSON and XML
- render JSON manually
- render JSON with active_model_serializers
API Versioning
- use versioning
API Authentication
- generate access tokens for authentication
- use SessionsController for issuing and validating access tokens
- use the authenticate_or_request_with_http_token method
- perform authentication with Devise
Documentation - API
- set up Apipie Gem
- document resources and actions using Apipie
- customize validators for Apipie
Documentation - RDoc
- use RDoc for documentation
Testing
- use Rack::Test to test HTTP response codes
Advanced
- work with log directories
- implement Unicorn as a web server
- use Kaminari for pagination
- create search forms with Ransack
- describe the basics of elasticsearch
- manipulate CSV files
- use rjb to connect Ruby with Java
- customize error pages
Practice: API Endpoints
- put search on an API endpoint