Divyen Patel's Weblog

Developing Rest APIs in PHP using the Zend Framework is as quick as a wink.
Lets begin with the installation and environment setup. I assume you are running OpenSolaris.

Step-1: Installation and Configuration of AMP [Note: skip this if you have already setup and configured AMP]

Step-2: Installation and Configuration of Zend Framework.

Edit php.ini file and set the include_path variable to include Zend framework library path.

Add “include_path”, if it does not exists. If it is already set, just add path to the zend library at the end. Make sure to use “:” path separator.

include_path = “.:/usr/php/lib/ZendFramework-1.7.5/library”

Step-3: Create Sample Database for Weather REST API.
Lets create the sample database for weather REST API.

create tbl_zip_temperature table using following query.
create table tbl_zip_temperature (zip_code char(5), day_highest_temp int, day_lowest_temp int, PRIMARY KEY (zip_code));

Lets dump in some dummy records with following queries.

insert into tbl_zip_temperature values(95035,67,52);
insert into tbl_zip_temperature values(95112,70,54);
insert into tbl_zip_temperature values(95032,70,50);

Step-4: Create Weather REST API using Zend Framework Library.
Here we are all set to begin the coding.
Lets create the weather_rest.php file under the document root (/var/apache2/2.2/htdocs) with following code.

<?php
include_once ('Zend/Rest/Server.php');
function get_temperature($zipcode) {
//error_code=0 for Sucesss / error_code=1 for Failure
    $error_code = 0;
    $doc = new DOMDocument();
    $doc->formatOutput = true;
// Creating Responce Element
    $root_element = $doc->createElement("response");
    $doc->appendChild($root_element);
//Create MYSQL Connection
    $MYSQL_DB_IP='localhost';
    $MYSQL_DB_USER='root';
    $MYSQL_DB_PASS='';
    $MYSQL_DB_NAME='weatherdb';
    $conn = new mysqli($MYSQL_DB_IP, $MYSQL_DB_USER, $MYSQL_DB_PASS , $MYSQL_DB_NAME);
    $sql = "select day_highest_temp, day_lowest_temp from tbl_zip_temperature where zip_code='".$zipcode."';";
    $result = $conn->query($sql);
    if ($result === false) {
        $error_code = 1;
    }
    else {
        if ($conn->affected_rows > 0) {
            $row = $result->fetch_assoc();
            $zip_element = $doc->createElement("zipcode");
            $zip_element->appendChild($doc->createTextNode($zipcode));
            $temp_high_element = $doc->createElement("tempHigh");
            $temp_high_element->appendChild($doc->createTextNode($row["day_highest_temp"]));
            $temp_low_element = $doc->createElement("templow");
            $temp_low_element->appendChild($doc->createTextNode($row["day_lowest_temp"]));
            $root_element->appendChild($zip_element);
            $root_element->appendChild($temp_high_element);
            $root_element->appendChild($temp_low_element);
        }
        else {
            $error_code = 1;
        }
    }
//Return status failed, if any error found.
    if ($error_code == 1) {
        $statusElement = $doc->createElement("status");
        $statusElement->appendChild($doc->createTextNode("failed"));
        $root_element->appendChild($statusElement);
    }
// Return status passed, if no error found
    else if ($error_code == 0) {
        $statusElement = $doc->createElement("status");
        $statusElement->appendChild($doc->createTextNode("passed"));
        $root_element->appendChild($statusElement);
    }
    return simplexml_load_string($doc->saveXML());
}
$server = new Zend_Rest_Server();
$server->addFunction('get_temperature');
$server->handle();
?>

That’s all, you are done with creating REST API. Lets open the firefox, to test this API.
Type in following URL in the address bar and hit enter.
http://localhost/weather_rest.php?method=get_temperature&zipcode=95035

Output of the REST API call with the status passed

if you hit http://localhost/weather_rest.php?method=get_temperature&zipcode=95055, you will get the output as given below. There is no record for this zip code in the database.

Output of the REST API call with the status failed

if you hit http://localhost/weather_rest.php?method=get_temperature, without any argument, you will get the output as given below.

Output of the REST API call without proper argument

You can also consume this RESTfull API in your Java Application. I will blog about it in my next post.

For Detailed explanation on “Zend_Rest_Server”, visit Zend Framework – Programmer Reference Guide

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