使用REST时的HTTP请求

Question

I'm trying to write a REST API. I honestly do not know anything related to REST structure so I've done some research and find a valuable information that one of the key things that separates REST from other structures is that it utilizes the 'GET','POST','PUT','DELETE' requests of HTTP.

This might come out silly but how can i control the request type. For example if I code it and simply enter a URL , how will my server side analyze whether its a GET,POST,PUT or DELETE request.

Sorry if I'm asking an obvious question, but I would love have some information related to this subject

Answer 1

A good place to start is by looking at the SO wiki associated with the rest tag . This is a part of SO that is so often overlooked as a great source of information. Just hover over the tag and select the "info" link.

Answer 2

Since you mentioned LAMP, I post here, a minimal PHP script which is aware of the method being called:

<?php
  if($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] == "POST") { 
    echo "Got a POST Request";
  } else {
    echo "Got a non-POST Request";
  }
?>

Look at this document which describes a lot of 'standard' PHP variables containing information about and content from the request, and so on:

http://www.php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.server.php

If you install and run Apache with the PHP module enabled, and serve a PHP file like the above, requesting that file from a client will return the appropriate string.