PHP Web Services

Lorna Jane Mitchell is an independent web development consultant, specializing in PHP and APIs in particular. With over 10 years of PHP development experience across a wide variety of industries, Lorna learned many lessons the hard way and always has a story to tell. Lorna is also an experienced trainer, offering training both to private clients around the world and teaching public courses. A prolific writer, Lorna writes for a number of publications, and frequently for her own blog http://lornajane.net.

Chapter 1 HTTP
Clients and Servers
Making HTTP Requests
Chapter 2 HTTP Verbs
Making GET Requests
Making POST Requests
Using Other HTTP Verbs
Chapter 3 Headers
Request and Response Headers
Common HTTP Headers
Custom Headers
Chapter 4 Cookies
Cookie Mechanics
Working with Cookies in PHP
Chapter 5 JSON
When to Choose JSON
Handling JSON with PHP
JSON in Existing APIs
Chapter 6 XML
When to Choose XML
XML in PHP
XML in Existing APIs
Chapter 7 RPC and SOAP Services
RPC
SOAP
Chapter 8 REST
RESTful URLs
Resource Structure and Hypermedia
Data and Media Types
HTTP Features in REST
Additional Headers in RESTful Services
RESTful versus Useful
Chapter 9 Debugging Web Services
Debug Output
Logging
Debugging from Outside Your Application
Finding the Tool for the Job
Chapter 10 Making Service Design Decisions
Service Type Decisions
Consider Data Formats
Customizable Experiences
Pick Your Defaults
Chapter 11 Building a Robust Service
Consistency Is Key
Making Design Decisions for Robustness
Chapter 12 Error Handling in APIs
Output Format
Meaningful Error Messages
What to Do When You See Errors
Chapter 13 Documentation
Overview Documentation
API Documentation
Interactive Documentation
Tutorials and the Wider Ecosystem
Appendix A Guide to Common Status Codes
Appendix Common HTTP Headers
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