Luracast Restler v3.0.0

Restler is a simple and effective multi-format Web API Server written in PHP.

Just deal with your business logic in php, restler will take care of the REST!

Restler 3 - Better APIs by Design

• Developer Home
• Live Examples
• Updates on Facebook and Twitter
• Features
• Installation
• Quick Start Guide
• Change Log

Features

• No Learning Curve
• Light weight
• Flexible
• Highly Customizable
• Many Examples that can be tried on your localhost to get started
• Supports HTTP request methods GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, and PATCH
• Supports both RESTful and Pragmatic REST API Design
• Clients can use X-HTTP-Method-Override header
• Two way format(media type) conversion
  • Pluggable Formatters
  • Comes with JSON, XML, Yaml, Amf, and Plist(both XML and Binary) formats
• Pluggable Authentication schemes
  • [planned] OAuth 2
• Pluggable Filters to effectively manage API usage
  • API Rate Limiting Filter
• Routing
  • Manual Routing
    • Using @url GET my/custom/url/{param} PHPDoc comments
  • Auto Routing
    • URL to Method mapping
    • URL part to Method parameter mapping
    • Query parameters to Method parameter mapping
    • Request body to Method parameter mapping
    • [planned] Header to Method parameter mapping
• Cache
  • Client Side Caching support
  • Proxy Caching support
  • Server Side Caching
    • [planned] ETag, If-None-Match support
    • [planned] Last-Modified, If-Modified-Since support
• API Features
  • Always supports URLEncoded format for simplified input (POST vars)
  • Automatic parameter validation and type conversion
  • API versioning support by URL and/or vendor specific MIME
  • API documentation and discovery using Restler API Explorer
  • Throttling
• Management
  • [planned] Unit Testing using PHPUnit
  • Behavior Driven API testing using Behat and Guzzle
  • Command line Project Management using Respect/Foundation
  • Dependency Management using Composer
  • Source code distributed under LGPL

Installation

Installation is a two step process. Do the following in the folder where you want Restler to be setup.

Before proceeding make sure your server has PHP 5.3 or higher.

1.

Download and unpack Restler 3, or Checkout using Terminal/Commandline

git clone git://github.com/Luracast/Restler.git -b v3 ./

This creates the following folder structure

.
├── features
│   ├── bootstrap
│   ├── examples
│   └── restler
├── public
│   └── examples
│       ├── _001_helloworld
│       ├── _002_minimal
│       ├── _003_multiformat
│       ├── _004_error_response
│       ├── _005_protected_api
│       ├── _006_routing
│       ├── _007_crud
│       ├── _008_documentation
│       ├── _009_rate_limiting
│       ├── _010_access_control
│       └── resources
└── vendor
    └── Luracast
        └── Restler

2.

Download the dependencies using make at the Terminal/Commandline. This step is only needed if you want to use Restler API Explorer or complex formats such as Plist, Yaml, and AMF as they depend on some third party libraries. Otherwise you may safely skip this step.

make composer-install

This expands the vendor folder as shown below

.
│
│
└── vendor
    ├── ChiperSoft
    │   └── CFPropertyList
    ├── Luracast
    │   ├── Restler
    │   └── explorer
    ├── behat
    │   ├── behat
    │   └── gherkin
    ├── composer
    ├── guzzle
    │   └── guzzle
    ├── symfony
    │   └── yaml
    └── zendframework
        └── zendamf

Now the vendor folder will have all dependencies.

3.

Ideally public folder should be mapped as your web root (optional, but recommended)

4.

Try the examples in your localhost

5.

Update the base_url specified in behat.yml and then try the following command

bin/behat

This will test the examples against the behaviors expected, for example

Feature: Testing CRUD Example
    Scenario: Creating new Author with JSON
        Given that I want to make a new "Author"
        And his "name" is "Chris"
        And his "email" is "chris@world.com"
        And the request is sent as JSON
        When I request "/examples/_007_crud/authors"
        Then the response status code should be 200
        And the response should be JSON
        And the response has a "id" property

All set, Happy Restling! :)

Quick Start Guide

Once you have got restler installed with the above steps, you can quickly create your application by following these steps

1.

Create your API classes with all needed public and protected methods

2.

Create the gateway (index.php) as follows

<?php
require_once '../../../vendor/restler.php';
use Luracast\Restler\Restler;

$r = new Restler();
$r->addAPIClass('YourApiClassNameHere'); // repeat for more
$r->handle(); //serve the response

3.

Enable URL Rewriting

Make sure all the requests are routed to index.php by enabling URL Rewriting for your website

For example:-

If you are on Apache, you can use an .htaccess file such as

DirectoryIndex index.php
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
	RewriteEngine On
	RewriteRule ^$ index.php [QSA,L]
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
	RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
	RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [QSA,L]
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_php5.c>
	php_flag display_errors On
</IfModule>

Note:- This requires AllowOverride to be set to All instead of None in the httpd.conf file

4.

Fine tune to suit your needs

<?php
require_once '../../../vendor/restler.php';
use Luracast\Restler\Restler;
use Luracast\Restler\Defaults;
//set the defaults to match your requirements
Defaults::$throttle = 20; //time in milliseconds for bandwidth throttling
//setup restler
$r = new Restler();
$r->addAPIClass('YourApiClassNameHere'); // repeat for more
$r->addAPIClass('Resources'); //from restler framework for API Explorer
$r->addFilterClass('RateLimit'); //Add Filters as needed
$r->handle(); //serve the response

If you have successfully completed Installation Step 2, you should have Restler API Explorer installed in vendor/Luracast/explorer folder Create a symbolic link of vendor/Luracast/explorer/dist or copy the folder and name it as explorer

Place the explorer in the same folder as the index.php

Explore the api and try it out by openings explorer/index.html from the web root on your browser

Happy Exploring! :)

You may use the following php doc comments to annotate your methods. All tags except @url can also be defined at the class level.

Tag	Description
@url	Syntax: @url GET|POST|PUT|PATCH|DELETE custom/{dynamic}/route Example: @url POST authors/{id}/books Overrides auto routes and creates manual routes. use as many as you need
@access	Syntax: @access private|public|protected|hybrid Example: POST authors/{id}/books Access control for api methods. PHPDoc only supports private and public, Restler adds protected for api that needs authentication, hybrid for api that enhances resulting data for authenticated users.
@smart-auto-routing	Syntax: @smart-auto-routing true|false Example: @smart-auto-routing false Smart auto routing is enabled by default. Avoids creating multiple routes that can increase the ambiguity when set to true. when a method parameter is optional it is not mapped to the url and should only be used in request body or as query string `/resource?id=value`. When a parameter is required and is scalar, it will be mapped as part of the url `/resource/{id}`
@class	Syntax: @class ClassName {@propertyName value} Example: @class AccessControl {@requires user} {@level 5} Inject property of the specified class with specified value
@cache	Syntax: @cache headerCacheControlValue Example: @cache max-age={expires}, must-revalidate Specify value to set CacheControl Header, it can use @expires value as shown in the example
@expires	Syntax: @expires numberOfSeconds Example: @expires 30 Sets the content to expire immediately when set to zero alternatively you can specify the number of seconds the content will expire
@throttle	Syntax: @throttle numberOfMilliSeconds Example: @throttle 3000 Sets the time in milliseconds for bandwidth throttling, which will become the minimum response time for each API request.
@status	Syntax: @status httpStatusCode Example: @status 201 Sets the HTTP Status code for the successful response.
@header	Syntax: @header httpHeader Example: @header Link: <meta.rdf>; rel=meta Sets or overrides the specific HTTP Header.
@param	Syntax: @param [type] Name [Description] {@name value} Example: @param int $num1 increment value {@min 5} {@max 100} Sets the HTTP Status code for the successful response.
@throws	Syntax: @throws httpStatusCode [Reason] Example: @throws 404 No Author for specified id Documents possible error responses for the API call.
@return	Syntax: @return type [Description] Example: @return Author an instance of iValueObject Documents the structure of success response, user defined classes must extend iValueObject.

5.

Protect your api, authenticate and allow valid users

<?php
require_once '../../../vendor/restler.php';
use Luracast\Restler\Restler;
$r = new Restler();
$r->addAPIClass('YourApiClassNameHere'); // repeat for more
$r->addAuthenticationClass('CustomAuth'); //Add Authentication classes as needed
$r->handle(); //serve the response

6.

Turn on production mode

<?php
require_once '../../../vendor/restler.php';
use Luracast\Restler\Restler;

//setup restler
$r = new Restler(true); //turns on production mode. make sure cache folder is writable
//...

Change Log

Changes from Restler 3.0 RC3

• Fixes to composer.json and publish stable release as composer package on packagist
• Moved to using the rodneyrehm/plist package for CFPropertyList.
• Removed required packages as they are not technically "required" perse, Restlec works out of the box.
• Created supported packages as require-dev instead which will be installed via composer intall --dev
• Added suggested section for all the supported packages.
• Added keywords to package descriptor
• Added branch alias to indicate that v3 is the snapshot for v3.0.x-dev
• Released Restler as package on packagist.

Changes from Restler 3.0 RC2

• Added Defaults::$cacheDirectory to set cache directory in one central place
• Added JSONP support with JsFormat class by extending JsonFormat.
• Fixes fatal error when the JSON sent in the request body is not an object or array
• Improves inline comment parsing by array conversion when delimiter is found and tag is not @pattern
• RateLimit class re-written to support all range of time units second|minute|hour|day|week|month to have fine grained control
• Resources class improved to include description for body parameters
• Fixes Resources not to include namespace when the return type is array of custom class
• Fixed Resource not to include the API of another class when the current api name is a begins with part of the other API
• Added two more ways to exclude API's from explorer/documentation
  • Resources::$excludedHttpMethods (array)
  • Resources::$excludedPaths (array)
• Fixes unescaped unicode bug in PHP < 5.4
• Fixes a bug with ValidationInfo parsing @choice inline comment
• Added Charset support
• Added Language (basic) support
• Updated the BDD tests to include new features
• Fixes a bug in Restler class which affects $_GET overriding Defaults
• Fixes a bug in XmlFormat parsing XML content to array
• Added support for JSONP via jsFormat extension of JsonFormat
• Fixes a bug in unicode un-escaping for JsonFormat in PHP < 5.4
• Fixes the order so that responseFormat->setCharset is called before encoding the response
• Documentiation improvements and minor bug fixes

Changes from Restler 3.0 RC1

• Filter classes can use authentication status and respond differently for authenticated users by implementing iUseAuthentication interface
• RateLimit class added to rate limit the api usage
• Fixed a bug with setCompatibilityMode
• Resources updated to use only paths for resource identification instead of class name
  • Enabled Access Control for Documentation
• Fixed CommentParser to ignore repeated white space so that it parses comments correctly
• Fixed comment parsing for @status and @expires tags
• Added the following Examples
  • Documentation
  • Rate Limit
  • Access Control
• CRUD example updated to include PATCH support

Changes from Restler 2.0

Restler 3.0 is completely rewritten from Restler 2.0 with best practices in mind for

• PHP Coding
• RESTfulness and/or Pragmatic REST
• API Design

Restler 3.0

• uses namespaces, Late Static Bindings, and Closures and thus it is PHP 5.3+ only (if you need PHP 5.0+ support use Restler 2)
• provides backward compatibility for Restler 1 and 2. Use $r->setCompatibilityMode($version);
• supports hybrid api which provides extended data to authenticated users Use @access hybrid PHPDoc comment
• uses smart auto routing by default where API method parameters that have default values are no longer mapped to the URL, instead they are mapped to query strings to reduce ambiguity in the url.
• supports suppress_response_codes as query string, when set to true; all http responses will be returned with HTTP OK with the errors in the body to accommodate mobile and less privileged clients.
• has improved CommentParser which adds support for embedded data in multiple formats
  • inline doc comments {@name value}
  • query string params ``` param1=value&param2=value2```
  • json ``` {"parm1": value, "param2": value2}``` which can be placed in multi-lines
• has Defaults class with static properties that can be changed to suit the needs
• iAuthenticate is now using __isAllowed method instead of __isAuthenticated so that same class can be used for Authentication or Filtering
• iUseAuthentication interface added to help hybrid access api methods and filters to find out about user authentication status
• iFilter interface updated to provide charset support
• ...(more to follow)

Changes from Restler 1.0

Restler 2.0 is a major rewrite to use convention over configuration and it is optimized for performance. Here are some of the major changes and improvements

• PHPDoc comments to map a method to URI are now optional.
• All public methods that does not begin with an underscore are mapped automatically to the method name (gateway\classname\methodname\param1\...)
• If we do not specify the second parameter for $restler->addAPIClass it will be mapped to the class name instead of mapping it to the root
• Restler 2 is written for PHP 5.3 and above but it make use of compat.php and work on any version of PHP starting from PHP 5.0