DataFlex support for REST is comprehensive and Mike Peat is keen to spread the word and get people familiar with how to use it. So, he’s written a blog series to help you.
- RESTful Service Theory – a general overview and brief history lesson of RESTful Web Services
- RESTful Services in DataFlex – summarises which version of DataFlex will be used and which tools
- Consuming RESTful Services in DataFlex – outlines how to make HTTP requests and receive their responses in DataFlex
- Creating RESTful Services in DataFlex – sets the scene for creating RESTful services in DataFlex two different ways
- A simple RESTful service in DataFlex – describes creating RESTful services in DataFlex ‘out of the box’
- Using the DataFlex REST library – describes creating RESTful services in DataFlex using the REST library
This blog series is based on pages originally created on the DataFlex.wiki, you may also like to read our post, How does REST actually help us build APIs?
Where to find out more about REST and DataFlex
If you are looking to find out more information about REST and DataFlex, you may want to look at:
- the Data Access forum OAuth, RESTFul & Web API Integration, where DataFlex developers exchange ideas and views on these subjects.
- Mike’s paper on why you should be creating RESTful APIS today which explains why the real key to long term success is to create your own web service APIs to allow other developers to access your systems.
- Mike’s technical presentation Creating RESTful web services with DataFlex 19.1 (Alpha 5) slides, about creating RESTful web services with DataFlex 19.1 (Alpha 5 at the time of this presentation). This presentation looks at how to create RESTful JSON-based Web Services in DataFlex and some of the reasons why it is important to do that. In addition, the presentation discusses some of the design constraints which make such services truly “RESTful”, as opposed to simply being JSON-RPC over HTTP, and how to go about meeting those in our APIs