Web Development
Ruby REST APIs
Building REST APIs
Ruby REST APIs use Rails or Sinatra with JSON responses.
Introduction to Ruby REST APIs
REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It relies on stateless, client-server communication, typically using HTTP. In the Ruby ecosystem, you can build RESTful APIs using frameworks such as Ruby on Rails or Sinatra. Both frameworks can handle JSON responses, which are commonly used in REST APIs.
Creating a REST API with Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a robust web application framework that simplifies building RESTful APIs. With Rails, you can quickly scaffold a REST API and define resources, routes, and controllers. Here's a step-by-step guide to creating a simple API with Rails:
Once you've created your Rails application, you can generate a resource. For example, let's create a Book resource.
This command generates a model, controller, and routes for the Book resource. Rails automatically sets up RESTful endpoints for creating, reading, updating, and deleting books, all responding with JSON by default when using the --api option.
Building REST APIs with Sinatra
Sinatra is a lightweight web framework for Ruby, perfect for building small, fast APIs and web applications. You have more control over your application's structure and can define routes and responses manually. Let's create a simple REST API using Sinatra:
This simple Sinatra application defines a route that returns a JSON array of books. You can expand this by adding more routes for creating, updating, and deleting books, following REST principles.
Handling JSON Responses
Both Rails and Sinatra make handling JSON responses straightforward. In Rails, the render json: method is commonly used, while Sinatra uses the content_type :json and to_json methods to format responses.
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