Boost Your Content Strategy for REST APIs with Gururaj BS

Copyright © 2014 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. |
15-Minute Intro to REST APIs
Gururaj (Guru)
@guru_bs
Information Development World
September 30, 2015

About HTTP
Oracle Confidential – Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted 3
• Request-response protocol
• HTTP client and HTTP server (optional HTTP proxy) protocol
HTTP Client
(Browser)
HTTP Server (Web
Server)
Request message
Response message
<Initial line – different for request and
response>
Header1: value1
Header2: value2
Header3: value3
<optional message body>

HTTP message format examples
REQUEST initiated by an HTTP Client
<Method> <Request URI>
HTTP/<version>
GET </path/to/file/index.html>
HTTP/1.1
Header1: value1
Header2: value2
Header3: value3
RESPONSE sent by an HTTP Server
HTTP/1.1 <HTTP status code>
Header1: value1
Header2: value2
Header3: value3
<optional message body>
<Content Type> (text/html, image/gif
etc)
<Content Length>

Here’s an
example…

What and where example
• Data in a table is a resource we want to read
• Database server is called database1
• Database called sampledb
• Table called employees
http://database1/sampledb/employees
• What type of content you return is up to you – XML and JSON are
common

REST client interfaces
Interface REST plugin examples
Command line cURL
Download link: Use cURL download wizard (http://curl.haxx.se/download.html)
Installation instructions:
On UNIX: http://www.unixnewbie.org/how-to-install-curl/
On Windows (you need cygwin - https://www.cygwin.com/) – use my team’s cURL on Windows installation
tutorial -
http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/cloud/objectstorage/installing_cURL/installing_c
URL.html
Desktop RESTClient (wiztools.org) – The GUI version will be used in the demo today.
Download link: http://code.fosshub.com/WizToolsorg-RESTClient/downloads
Browser REST Easy (a Firefox plugin)
Download link: https://addons.mozilla.org/EN-us/firefox/addon/rest-easy/

HTTP methods
Method Description
OPTIONS Returns HTTP methods and other options supported by a RESTful service
GET Retrieves a single resource, or retrieve all resources in a collection
HEAD Retrieves a single resource, or retrieve all resources in a collection (headers
only)
POST Create a new resource in a collection
PUT Update a resource (full update)
PATCH Update a resource (delta update) – RFC 5789
DELETE Delete a resource

HTTP statuses
Status Code Description
1xx Informational - request received, continuing process
2xx Success - action requested by the client was received,
understood, accepted and processed successfully
3xx Client must take additional action to complete the
request. Many of these status codes are used in URL
redirection
4xx Client errors
5xx Server errors

Intro to the demo
We will use Oracle Storage Cloud Service, an object storage solution from Oracle built on
top of open stack swift API
1. Sign up for Oracle Storage Cloud Service trial
– REST end point/URL
– User name and password
2. Get an authentication token (GET) – 30-minute validity – a different service with its
own end point to grant a time-bound token
3. See which HTTP methods are supported (OPTIONS)
4. Create a storage Container (PUT)
5. Set container metadata (POST): number of objects in a container
6. Delete the container (DELETE)

Demo Screenshots

Copyright © 2015 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. | Oracle Confidential – Internal/Restricted/Highly Restricted 12
REST endpoint

Useful links
• XML and JSON examples: http://json.org/example
• HTTP spec: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html
• A story of how a web developer explained REST to his wife: http://www.looah.com/source/view/2284
• HTTP status codes: http://httpstatus.es/
• Oracle Storage Cloud Service Trial: http://cloud.oracle.com/storage
• My team’s cURL on Windows installation tutorial -
http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/cloud/objectstorage/installing_cURL/insta
lling_cURL.html
• Oracle Storage Cloud Service documentation:
http://docs.oracle.com/cloud/latest/storagecs_common/CSSTO/GUID-5778ADBB-A0E8-4451-B886-
362A3B7237DB.htm#CSSTO3177

Demo screenshots

Authentication Error

GET – Authentication Token

OPTIONS – View the methods allowed

PUT – Create a container

GET– View the newly created container

POST– set container metadata (quota and number of objects)

POST– status

DELETE– delete the container

GET– view the list of containers to verify the deletion of Guru_Cont4

Boost Your Content Strategy for REST APIs with Gururaj BS

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