APIs in PHP CI3 -CodeIgniter 3 API Development Tutorial: Learn to Build RESTful APIs

Blogs Overflow help you to creating APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) in CodeIgniter 3 (CI3) involves defining routes, controllers, and handling data appropriately. Here’s a basic guide to creating APIs in CodeIgniter 3 using RESTful principles:

Install CodeIgniter
Ensure that you have CodeIgniter 3 installed on your server. You can download it from the official website and follow the installation instructions.
Configure Routes:
Open the application/config/routes.php file and set up routes for your API. For RESTful APIs, you can use the resources method to map HTTP verbs to controller methods.

$route['api/users']['get'] = 'api/users/index';
$route['api/users/(:num)']['get'] = 'api/users/view/$1';
$route['api/users']['post'] = 'api/users/create';
$route['api/users/(:num)']['put'] = 'api/users/update/$1';
$route['api/users/(:num)']['delete'] = 'api/users/delete/$1';

Create Controller:
Create a controller for your API. In the application/controllers directory, create a file like Api.php.

<?php
defined('BASEPATH') OR exit('No direct script access allowed');

class Api extends CI_Controller {

    public function __construct() {
        parent::__construct();
        // Load necessary models or libraries
    }

    public function users($id = null) {
        // Handle GET, POST, PUT, DELETE requests
        // Implement your logic to interact with the database or perform other tasks
    }
}

Enable Query Strings:
In application/config/config.php, make sure enable_query_strings is set to TRUE if you want to allow query string parameters.

$config['enable_query_strings'] = TRUE;

Handle Input Data:
Use CodeIgniter’s Input Class to handle input data in your controller methods.

$data = $this->input->input_stream();

Handle Output:
To output data in a specific format (e.g., JSON), you can use the json_encode function.

$this->output
    ->set_content_type('application/json')
    ->set_output(json_encode($your_data));

Remember to secure your API by implementing proper authentication and validation mechanisms based on your application’s requirements. Additionally, consider transitioning to a newer version of CodeIgniter or exploring alternative PHP frameworks like CodeIgniter 4, which may offer more features and improvements.

This book covers various aspects of web application development with CodeIgniter, including the creation of APIs. While it’s not exclusively focused on APIs, it provides practical insights into building web applications using CI3, and you can find sections on API development.

CodeIgniter Web Application Blueprints

External Links:

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