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RESTful best practices for Drupal

This module allows Drupal to be operated via RESTful HTTP requests, using best practices for security, performance, and usability.

Concept

Here are the differences between RESTful and other modules, such as RestWs and Services Entity:

  • RESTful requires explicitly declaring the exposed API. When enabling the module, nothing happens until a plugin declares it.
  • Resources are exposed by bundle, rather than by entity. This would allow a developer to expose only nodes of a certain type, for example.
  • The exposed properties need to be explicitly declared. This allows a clean output without Drupal's internal implementation leaking out. This means the consuming client doesn't need to know if an entity is a node or a term, nor will they be presented with the field_ prefix.
  • Resource versioning is built-in, so that resources can be reused with multiple consumers. The versions are at the resource level, for more flexibility and control.
  • It has configurable output formats. It ships with JSON and XML as examples. HAL+JSON is the recommended default.
  • Audience is developers and not site builders.
  • Provide a key tool for a headless Drupal. See the AngularJs form example module.

Module dependencies

Declaring a REST Endpoint

A RESTful endpoint is declared via a custom module that includes a plugin which describes the resource you want to make available. Here are the bare essentials from one of the multiple examples in the example module:

####restful_custom/restful_custom.info

name = RESTful custom
description = Custom RESTful resource.
core = 7.x
dependencies[] = restful

####restful_custom/restful_custom.module

/**
 * Implements hook_ctools_plugin_directory().
 */
 function restful_custom_ctools_plugin_directory($module, $plugin) {
   if ($module == 'restful') {
     return 'plugins/' . $plugin;
   }
 }

####restful_custom/plugins/restful/myplugin.inc

$plugin = array(
  'label' => t('Articles'),
  'resource' => 'articles',
  'name' => 'articles',
  'entity_type' => 'node',
  'bundle' => 'article',
  'description' => t('Export the article content type.'),
  'class' => 'RestfulCustomResource',
);

####restful_custom/plugins/restful/RestfulCustomResource.class.php

class RestfulCustomResource extends RestfulEntityBaseNode {

  /**
   * Overrides RestfulEntityBaseNode::publicFieldsInfo().
   */
  public function publicFieldsInfo() {
    $public_fields = parent::publicFieldsInfo();

    $public_fields['body'] = array(
      'property' => 'body',
      'sub_property' => 'value',
    );

    return $public_fields;
  }
}

After declaring this plugin, the resource could be accessed at its root URL, which would be http://example.com/api/v1.0/articles.

Security, caching, output, and customization

See the Defining a RESTful Plugin document for more details.

Using your API from within Drupal

The following examples use the articles resource from the restful_example module.

Getting the default RESTful handler for a resource

// Get handler v1.0
$handler = restful_get_restful_handler('articles');

Getting a specific version of a RESTful handler for a resource

// Get handler v1.1
$handler = restful_get_restful_handler('articles', 1, 1);

Create and update an entity

$handler = restful_get_restful_handler('articles');
// POST method, to create.
$result = $handler->post('', array('label' => 'example title'));
$id = $result['id'];

// PATCH method to update only the title.
$request['label'] = 'new title';
$handler->patch($id, $request);

List entities

$handler = restful_get_restful_handler('articles');
$result = $handler->get();

// Output:
array(
  'data' => array(
    array(
      'id' => 1,
      'label' => 'example title',
      'self' => 'https://example.com/node/1',
    );
    array(
      'id' => 2,
      'label' => 'another title',
      'self' => 'https://example.com/node/2',
    );
  ),
);

Sort, Filter, Range, and Sub Requests

See the Using your API within drupal documentation for more details.

Consuming your API

The following examples use the articles resource from the restful_example module.

Consuming specific versions of your API

# Handler v1.0
curl https://example.com/api/articles/1 \
  -H "X-API-Version: v1.0"
# or
curl https://example.com/api/v1.0/articles/1

# Handler v1.1
curl https://example.com/api/articles/1 \
  -H "X-API-Version: v1.1"
# or
curl https://example.com/api/v1.1/articles/1

View multiple articles at once

# Handler v1.1
curl https://example.com/api/articles/1,2 \
  -H "X-API-Version: v1.1"

Returning autocomplete results

curl https://example.com/api/articles?autocomplete[string]=mystring

URL Query strings, HTTP headers, and HTTP requests

See the Consuming Your API document for more details.

Documenting your API

Clients can access documentation about a resource by making an OPTIONS HTTP request to its root URL. The resource will respond with the field information in the body, and the information about the available output formats and the permitted HTTP methods will be contained in the headers.

Automatic documentation

If your resource is an entity, then it will be partially self-documented, without you needing to do anything else. This information is automatically derived from the Entity API and Field API.

Here is a snippet from a typical JSON response using only the automatic documentation:

{
  "myfield": {
    "info": {
      "label": "My Field",
      "description": "A field within my resource."
    },
    "data": {
      "type": "string",
      "read_only": false,
      "cardinality": 1,
      "required": false
    },
    "form_element": {
      "type": "texfield",
      "default_value": "",
      "placeholder": "",
      "size": 255,
      "allowed_values": null
    }
  }
  // { ... other fields would follow ... }
}

Each field you've defined in publicFieldsInfo will output an object similar to the one listed above.

Manual documentation

In addition to the automatic documentation provided to you out of the box, you have the ability to manually document your resources. See the Documenting your API documentation for more details.

Modules integration

Credits