Pre Fest Workshop

Pre-Fest REST API Workshop

With Shelby Switzer and Mike Amundsen

This year we are holding a pre-fest workshop for anyone new to REST or hypermedia. The workshop will introduce you to the basics of REST, with a combination of fun presentations, discussion, and hands-on hypermedia projects. You’ll come away from the day’s event with a better understanding of REST and hypermedia, the knowledge to build a REST Service and a REST/Hypermedia Client, and a working example of a running REST service and Hypermedia client.

This workshop is on Wednesday, September 13.

Topics

1. Fielding’s REST
2. Hypermedia
3. APIs
4. Loose-Coupling
5. Avoiding Hard Versioning

Desired Outcomes

• Understand REST and Hypermedia
• Know how to build a REST Service
• Know how to build a REST/Hypermedia Client
• Know what it takes to build services that can change without breaking clients
• Have an example of a running REST service and Hypermedia client

Schedule

This is our starting schedule plan. It's a work in-progress, so feedback is welcome! Feel free to contribute suggestions by filing issues on this site's issue tracker.

Morning: REST and Servers (3hrs)

Pre-reqs: Docker installed

1. What is REST? (45min)
2. Designing (45min)
   1. Understanding your clients and use cases
   2. Identifying resources
   3. Picking a hypermedia format
      1. HAL
      2. Collection+JSON
      3. JSON API
      4. Siren
      5. others

BREAK (15/30min)

1. Implementing (45min)
   1. The open data sets
   2. Introduction to API-in-a-Box
   3. Building hypermedia APIs with API-in-a-Box
2. Validating (45min)
   1. Test your hypermedia API
   2. Open Discussion/Q&A on REST servers

LUNCH

Afternoon: REST and Client Apps (3hrs)

1. The Basics of a REST Client (45min)
   1. REST is Hypermedia: A short review
   2. Understanding H-Factors
   3. Dealing with the OAA challenge
   4. Self-Description and Adaptability
2. Designing (45min)
   1. The Anatomy of a REST/Hypermedia Client
   2. Hypermedia Types and the HTML DOM
      1. HAL
      2. Siren
      3. Collection+JSON
   3. A Visual Model

BREAK (15/30min)

1. Implementing (45min)
   1. The HTML SPA Client
   2. Scripting a Collection+JSON Client
      1. Debug
      2. Title
      3. Links
      4. Items
      5. Queries
      6. Templates
      7. Errors
2. Validating (45min)
   1. Test your Cj Client against a Cj server
   2. Open Discussion/Q&A on Hypermedia clients