Construction of RESTful API is one of the key skills that is required from the contemporary web developers allowing the smooth and efficient exchange of data between different software applications over the World Wide Web. Here in this blog, we are going to learn how to create your first RESTful API with node. It is an open source JavaScript runtime that is considered fast and highly scalable, given the name js.

Why Choose Node. js for RESTful APIs?

JavaScript Everywhere

Node. js on the tip of the iceberg permits JavaScript both on the client and the server side, thus reducing our work time. The usage of the same language throughout the whole stack can prove beneficial to your development process and is easier to manage.

Asynchronous and Event-Driven

Node. js distinguishes itself as especially suitable for processing many connections in parallel at once due to its non-blocking and event-based nature. This make it especially useful for real-time services and APIs that involved high degrees of concurrency.

Rich Ecosystem

NPM, has a rich library of packages and tools that can be incorporate to streamline development and decreased the amount of code that is essentially reusable. From routing to access databases or implementing global lists, npm is all that one requires to get done!

Prerequisites

Before we proceed to the steps of creating your first RESTful API with Node. js, ensure you have the following installed on your system:js, ensure you have the following installed on your system:

• Node. js: Get the latest one from the [official Node. js website](https://nodejs. org/).
• A Code Editor: VS Code is also much used by developers due to its potent functionality and rich extension. The most important components of a RESTful are as follows: When building a RESTful API, you’ll typically work with the following components:When building a RESTful API, you’ll typically work with the following components: Express Express is a minimal and flexible Node. emerging js web application framework that offers many features for web as well as for mobile applications. It makes API easier to build due to its easy routings as well as its middleware handling of API.

Middleware

Middleware functions in Express are functions that are able to work with the objects of request and response known as req and res respectively, as well as the next function in the application’s cycle of request handling and response generating. Here are some functionalities that can be implemented by middleware: logging of the current request and the response that follows it, authentication, and parsing of request body.

Mongoose

Mongoose is actually an Object Data Modeling (ODM) tool for MongoDB and for Node. js. It gives a simple, schema-driven method to define your application data, validate it, and work with a database.

Defining the Data Model

A data model specifies how your resource data is going to be organized and structured. This could literally be anything from users to products, orders, posts and anything else you can think of in a typical RESTful API. When setting up an Mongoose model you will describe the schema that describes the fields and their characteristics.

For instance basic attributes that can be included in book model may comprise title attribute, the author name attribute and the published date attribute. This particular idea will assist in proactively creating a common structure for all data stored in the database hence making the work of managing and searching for the data easier.

Creating the API Endpoints

API endpoint are actually the links that client uses to communicate with the server. Each endpoint relates to a given function or operation; these are creating a new resource, reading the resource, modifying the content of the resource, and deleting records.

Common CRUD Operations

• Create: Usually, it entails the use of POST. For instance, entering a new book in record list.
• Read: Delivered by GET requests. This could include function to get all books or a particular book by its ID.
• Update: Most of the time it can be handled by a PATCH or PUT request from the client. Whereby in edit_book_entry you can update a specific book entry of a given book.
• Delete: Part of requests that are handled by DELETE requests. This endpoint would help in deleting a book entry from the database. Testing Your API It is significant to launch tests in API development to prove each endpoint with numerous functions and to check how it performs in case of occurrence of some specific issues. GraphQL provides developers means to send requests to an API and ensure that the responses are as expected with tool like Postman/curl. Using Postman Postman is one of the most effective utilities for working with API and testing the functionality of API resources. It has a GUI for the user to send the requests and received the responses that helps in validating the behavior of your endpoints.

Using curl

For those who love using the terminal you can use curl, which is a command-line tool which transfers data with URLs. You can fire requests as GET, POST, PATCH, DELETE etc, crazy simple to use and see what the API responds with.

Conclusion

Building of RESTful API using Node. js a is a very challenging and at the same time enjoyable task as the necessary tools for developing sound and scalable web services are provided. Node. Being asynchronous, js fits API development perfectly; Express is simple but powerful, while Mongoose offers strong data modeling capabilities.

With reference to this guide, you will be able to establish the most elemental application of the RESTful API as well as build on it with extra characteristics if the need arises. It doesn’t matter if you are creating a small app or a large system, Node. js has the ability along with the freedom to help create your project. Happy coding!