Working with Web Services

Rest API

I have previously written documentation on this site in order to describe how to make web services on Symfony

I will write again a tutorial for the symfony >= 3 version.

We think that we have a installed web-server on a configured version of Symfony Framework. You must have composer (php packages manager) installed too.

To made it simple, if you have composer installed, type this in a terminal / command prompt :

composer create-project symfony/framework-standard-edition example "3.1.*"

This will create a new directory called “example” in the current directory, with a standard installation of symfony framework.

You must install this 2 Bundles : JMSSerializer Bundle (extends framework component serializer) and FOSRest Bundle (extends framework component routing and controllers…)

You can do this like this (in the example directory) :

composer require jms/serializer-bundle "~0.13"
composer require friendsofsymfony/rest-bundle

Don’t forget to activate them in AppKernel !

Here you can’t use :

composer create-project gimler/symfony-rest-edition --stability=dev example

Because it’s based on Symfony 2.8 version.

First, create your own (“Example”) Bundle (in Symfony directory) :

php bin/console generate:bundle
php bin/console doctrine:create:database

Imagine that we want to make CRUD (Create / Read / Update / Delete) of this StackOverFlower Entity :

# src/ExampleBundle/Resources/config/doctrine/StackOverFlower.orm.yml
ExampleBundle\Entity\StackOverFlower:
    type: entity
    table: stackoverflower
    id:
        id:
            type: integer
            generator: { strategy: AUTO }
    fields:
        name:
            type: string
            length: 100

Configure your Bundle :

#app/config/config.yml
fos_rest:
    format_listener:
        rules:
            - { path: '^/stackoverflower', priorities: ['xml', 'json'], fallback_format: xml, prefer_extension: true }
            - { path: '^/', priorities: [ 'text/html', '*/*'], fallback_format: html, prefer_extension: true }

Generate this entity :

php bin/console doctrine:generate:entity StackOverFlower
php bin/console doctrine:schema:update --force

Make a Controller :

#src/ExampleBundle/Controller/StackOverFlowerController.php

namespace ExampleBundle\Controller;

use FOS\RestBundle\Controller\FOSRestController;
use Symfony\Component\HttpFoundation\Request;

use FOS\RestBundle\Controller\Annotations\Get;
use FOS\RestBundle\Controller\Annotations\Post;
use FOS\RestBundle\Controller\Annotations\Delete;

use ExampleBundle\Entity\StackOverFlower;

class StackOverFlowerController extends FOSRestController
{
    /**
     * findStackOverFlowerByRequest
     * 
     * @param Request $request
     * @return StackOverFlower
     * @throws NotFoundException
     */
    private function findStackOverFlowerByRequest(Request $request) {
        
        $id = $request->get('id');
        $user = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository("ExampleBundle:StackOverFlower")->findOneBy(array('id' => $id));
        
        return $user;
    }
    
    /**
     * validateAndPersistEntity
     * 
     * @param StackOverFlower $user
     * @param Boolean $delete
     * @return View the view
     */
    private function validateAndPersistEntity(StackOverFlower $user, $delete = false) {
        
        $template = "ExampleBundle:StackOverFlower:example.html.twig";
        
        $validator = $this->get('validator');
        $errors_list = $validator->validate($user); 
        
        if (0 === count($errors_list)) {
            
            $em = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager();
            
            if ($delete === true) {
                $em->remove($user);
            } else {
                $em->persist($user);
            }
            
            $em->flush();
            
            $view = $this->view($user)
                         ->setTemplateVar('user')
                         ->setTemplate($template);
        } else {
            
            $errors = "";
            foreach ($errors_list as $error) {
                $errors .= (string) $error->getMessage();  
            }
            
            $view = $this->view($errors)
                         ->setTemplateVar('errors')
                         ->setTemplate($template);
            
        } 
        
        return $view;
    }
    
    /**
     * newStackOverFlowerAction
     * 
     * @Get("/stackoverflower/new/{name}")
     * 
     * @param Request $request
     * @return String
     */
    public function newStackOverFlowerAction(Request $request)
    {   
        $user = new StackOverFlower();
        $user->setName($request->get('name'));
        
        $view = $this->validateAndPersistEntity($user);
            
        return $this->handleView($view);
    }
      
    /**
     * editStackOverFlowerAction
     * 
     * @Get("/stackoverflower/edit/{id}/{name}")
     * 
     * @param Request $request
     * @return type
     */
    public function editStackOverFlowerAction(Request $request) {
        
        $user = $this->findStackOverFlowerByRequest($request);
        
        if (! $user) {
            $view = $this->view("No StackOverFlower found for this id:". $request->get('id'), 404);
            return $this->handleView($view);
        }
        
        $user->setName($request->get('name'));
        
        $view = $this->validateAndPersistEntity($user);
                
        return $this->handleView($view);
    }
    
    /**
     * deleteStackOverFlowerAction
     * 
     * @Get("/stackoverflower/delete/{id}")
     * 
     * @param Request $request
     * @return type
     */
    public function deleteStackOverFlowerAction(Request $request) {
        
        $user = $this->findStackOverFlowerByRequest($request);
        
        if (! $user) {
            $view = $this->view("No StackOverFlower found for this id:". $request->get('id'), 404);
            return $this->handleView();
        }
        
        $view = $this->validateAndPersistEntity($user, true);
                
        return $this->handleView($view);
    }
    
    /**
     * getStackOverFlowerAction
     * 
     * @Get("/stackoverflowers")
     * 
     * @param Request $request
     * @return type
     */
    public function getStackOverFlowerAction(Request $request) {
        
        $template = "ExampleBundle:StackOverFlower:example.html.twig";
        
        $users = $this->getDoctrine()->getManager()->getRepository("ExampleBundle:StackOverFlower")->findAll();
        
        if (0 === count($users)) {
            $view = $this->view("No StackOverFlower found.", 404);
            return $this->handleView();
        }
        
        $view = $this->view($users)
                     ->setTemplateVar('users')
                     ->setTemplate($template);
        
        return $this->handleView($view);
    }
}

Don’t tell me that is a fat controller, it’s for the example !!!

Create your template :

#src/ExampleBundle/Resources/views/StackOverFlower.html.twig
{% if errors is defined %}
  {{ errors }}  
{% else %}
  {% if users is defined %}
    {{ users | serialize }}
  {% else %}
    {{ user | serialize }}
  {% endif %}
{% endif %}

You have just made your first RESTFul API !!!

You can test it on : https://your-server-name/your-symfony-path/app_dev.php/stackoverflower/new/test.

As you can see in the database, a new user has been created with the name : “test”.

You can view a full working example of this code on my GitHub Account, one branch with more real routes…

This is a very basic example, don’t let that in production environnement, you must protect your api with apikey !!!

A future example, may be ?