App server development

Built on top of the last two chapters, in this chapter, we study several additional concepts to build a full-stack web app.

• 5-1. Web API, concepts
  • endpoints, HTTP methods, path
  • payload, URL-encoded, JSON
• 5-2. RPC Web APIs
  • GET - retrieve items
  • POST - update items
• 5-3. REST Web APIs
  • Resources, collection
  • CRUD operations
  • HTTP methods: GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE, POST
  • searching, pagination, sub-resources
• 5-4. Making HTTP requests in clients
  • Fetch API
  • Send GET request, with payload in query string
  • Send other requests (e.g. POST, PUT), with JSON payload in body
  • sample program: p540-fetch
• 5-5. Web app server
  • Express.js
  • Routes, middlewares
  • sample program: p550-express.zip
• 5-6. Implementing REST API
  • Single origin policy
  • Web app architecture: serving static resources and a private Web API
  • Express.js Router
  • Sanity check for input to Web API
  • Reporting errors to clients
  • sample program: p560-restapi.zip