Going from building traditional Rails web applications to JSON web services can be tough. Even using Rails on the back end, there are still changes you'll need to make in how you design, code, and test your application. Where will you go for the answers?
As a platform for building APIs, Rails has a lot going for it: familiarity, expressiveness, regular improvements, reliable maintenance, and a great ecosystem of third-party gems. But developers have been mostly left on their own to understand how to set up and build API applications. Until now.
This is the book that I looked for and couldn't find before I started developing Rails APIs because it covers everything you want to know when you're getting started with clear examples:
- Setting up your application with all the supporting gems you'll need
- Coding RESTful services and endpoints
- Tailoring your responses and the data in them
- Testing APIs and how it differs from other types of Rails apps
- Implementing solutions to common requirements and problems
- Choosing the right authentication method for your application
- Designing your service to be stable, robust, and complete from the start
