Yii provides the following useful features for implementing RESTful APIs −

• Quick prototyping
• Customizable object serialization
• Response format (supporting JSON and XML by default)
• Formatting of collection data and validation errors
• Efficient routing
• Support for HATEOAS
• Built-in support for the OPTIONS and HEAD verbs
• Data caching and HTTP caching
• Authentication and authorization
• Rate limiting

To show RESTful APIs in action, we need data.

Preparing the DB

Step 1 − Create a new database. Database can be prepared in the following two ways.

• In the terminal run mysql -u root –p.

• Create a new database via CREATE DATABASE helloworld CHARACTER SET utf8 COLLATE utf8_general_ci;

Step 2 − Configure the database connection in the config/db.php file. The following configuration is for the system used currently.

<?php
   return [
      ''class'' => ''yiidbConnection'',
      ''dsn'' => ''mysql:host = localhost;dbname = helloworld'',
      ''username'' => ''vladimir'',
      ''password'' => ''12345'',
      ''charset'' => ''utf8'',
   ];
?>

Step 3 − Inside the root folder run ./yii migrate/create test_table. This command will create a database migration for managing our DB. The migration file should appear in the migrations folder of the project root.

Step 4 − Modify the migration file (m160106_163154_test_table.php in this case) this way.

<?php
   use yiidbSchema;
   
   use yiidbMigration;
   class m160106_163154_test_table extends Migration {
      public function safeUp() {
         $this->createTable("user", [
            "id" => Schema::TYPE_PK,
            "name" => Schema::TYPE_STRING,
            "email" => Schema::TYPE_STRING,
         ]);
         $this->batchInsert("user", ["name", "email"], [
            ["User1", "[email protected]"],
            ["User2", "[email protected]"],
            ["User3", "[email protected]"],
            ["User4", "[email protected]"],
            ["User5", "[email protected]"], 
            ["User6", "[email protected]"],
            ["User7", "[email protected]"],
            ["User8", "[email protected]"],
            ["User9", "[email protected]"],
            ["User10", "[email protected]"],
            ["User11", "[email protected]"],
         ]);
      }
      public function safeDown() {
         $this->dropTable(''user'');
      }
   }
?>

The above migration creates a user table with these fields: id, name, and email. It also adds a few demo users.

Step 5 − Inside the project root run ./yii migrate to apply the migration to the database.

Step 6 − Now, we need to create a model for our user table. For the sake of simplicity, we are going to use the Gii code generation tool. Open up this url: http://localhost:8080/index.php?r=gii. Then, click the “Start” button under the “Model generator” header. Fill in the Table Name (“user”) and the Model Class (“MyUser”), click the “Preview” button and finally, click the “Generate” button.

The MyUser model should appear in the models directory.

Installing Postman

Postman is a handy tool when developing a RESTful service. It provides a useful interface for constructing requests.

You can find this tool at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/postman/fhbjgbiflinjbdggehcddcbncdddomop?hl=en .

To install it, press the “Add to Chrome” button.