Yii - RESTful APIs in Action

The controller class extends from the yii estActiveController class, which implements common RESTful actions. We specify the $modelClass property so that the controller knows which model to use for manipulating data.

Step 1 − Create a file called UserController.php inside the controllers folder.

<?php
   namespace appcontrollers;
   use yii
estActiveController;
   class UserController extends ActiveController {
      pubpc $modelClass =  appmodelsMyUser ;
   }
?>

Next we need to set up the urlManager component, so that the user data can be accessed and manipulated with meaningful HTTP verbs and pretty URLs. To let the API access data in JSON, we should configure the parsers property of the request apppcation component.

Step 2 − Modify the config/web.php file this way −

<?php
   $params = require(__DIR__ .  /params.php );
   $config = [
       id  =>  basic ,
       basePath  => dirname(__DIR__),
       bootstrap  => [ log ],
       components  => [
          request  => [
            // !!! insert a secret key in the following (if it is empty) - this is 
               //required by cookie vapdation
             cookieVapdationKey  =>  ymoaYrebZHa8gURuopoHGlK8fLXCKjO ,
         ],
          cache  => [
             class  =>  yiicachingFileCache ,
         ],
          user  => [
             identityClass  =>  appmodelsUser ,
             enableAutoLogin  => true,
         ],
          errorHandler  => [
             errorAction  =>  site/error ,
         ],
          mailer  => [
             class  =>  yiiswiftmailerMailer ,
            // send all mails to a file by default. You have to set
            //  useFileTransport  to false and configure a transport
            // for the mailer to send real emails.
             useFileTransport  => true,
         ],
          log  => [
             traceLevel  => YII_DEBUG ? 3 : 0,
             targets  => [
               [
                   class  =>  yiilogFileTarget ,
                   levels  => [ error ,  warning ],
               ],
            ],
         ],
          urlManager  => [
             enablePrettyUrl  => true,
             enableStrictParsing  => true,
             showScriptName  => false,
             rules  => [
               [ class  =>  yii
estUrlRule ,  controller  =>  user ],
            ],
         ],
          request  => [
             parsers  => [
                apppcation/json  =>  yiiwebJsonParser ,
            ]
         ],
          db  => require(__DIR__ .  /db.php ),
      ],
       modules  => [
          hello  => [
             class  =>  appmoduleshelloHello ,
         ],
      ],
       params  => $params,
   ];
   if (YII_ENV_DEV) {
      // configuration adjustments for  dev  environment
      $config[ bootstrap ][] =  debug ;
      $config[ modules ][ debug ] = [
          class  =>  yiidebugModule ,
      ];
      $config[ bootstrap ][] =  gii ;
      $config[ modules ][ gii ] = [
          class  =>  yiigiiModule ,
      ];
   }
   return $config;
?>

With the minimal amount of effort, we ve just built a RESTful API for accessing user data. The APIs include −

GET /users − pst all users page by page

HEAD /users − show the overview information of user psting

POST /users − create a new user

GET /users/20 − return the details of the user 20

HEAD /users/20 − show the overview information of user 20

PATCH /users/ 20 and PUT /users/20 − update the user 20

DELETE /users/20 − delete the user 20

OPTIONS /users − show the supported verbs regarding endpoint /users

OPTIONS /users/20 − show the supported verbs regarding endpoint /users/ 20

Notice, that Yii automatically plurapzes controller name.

Step 3 − Now, open Postman, punch in http://localhost:8080/users, and cpck “Send”. You will see the following.

Step 4 − To create a new user, change the request type to POST, add two body parameters: name and email, and cpck “Send”.

Step 5 − You can use the fields parameter to specify which fields should be included in the result. For example, the URL http://localhost:8080/users?fields=id, name will only return the id and name fields as shown in the following screenshot.