Using the Zend_Rest_Client
is very similar to using SoapClient
objects (SOAP web service extension).
You can simply call the REST service procedures as Zend_Rest_Client
methods.
Specify the service's full address in the Zend_Rest_Client
constructor.
Example 4.1. A basic REST request
<?php /** * Connect to framework.zend.com server and retrieve a greeting */ require_once 'Zend/Rest/Client.php'; $client = new Zend_Rest_Client('http://framework.zend.com/rest'); echo $client->sayHello('Davey', 'Day')->get(); // "Hello Davey, Good Day" ?>
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Differences in calling |
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All requests made using Zend_Rest_Client
return a Zend_Rest_Client_Response
object. This object has many properties that make it easier to access the results.
When the service is based on Zend_Rest_Server
, Zend_Rest_Client
can make several assumptions about the response, including response status (success or failure) and return type.
Example 4.2. Response Status
<?php require_once 'Zend/Rest/Client.php'; $result = $client->sayHello('Davey', 'Day')->get(); if ($result->isSuccess()) { echo $result; // "Hello Davey, Good Day" } ?>
In the example above, you can see that we use the request result as an object, to call isSuccess()
, and then
because of __toString()
, we can simply echo
the object to get the result. Zend_Rest_Client_Response
will allow you to echo any scalar value - that is of string, integer or boolean values. For complex types, you can use either array or object notation.
If however, you wish to query a service not using Zend_Rest_Server
the Zend_Rest_Client_Response
object will behave more like a SimpleXMLElement
. However, to make things easier, it will automatically query the XML using XPath if the property is not a direct descendant of the document root element.
Example 4.3. Using Technorati's Rest Service
<?php require_once 'Zend/Rest/Client.php'; $technorati = new Zend_Rest_Client('http://api.technorati.com/bloginfo'); $technorati->key($key); $technorati->url('http://pixelated-dreams.com'); $result = $technorati->get(); echo $result->firstname .' '. $result->lastname; ?>
Example 4.4. Example Technorati Response
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <!-- generator="Technorati API version 1.0 /bloginfo" --> <!DOCTYPE tapi PUBLIC "-//Technorati, Inc.//DTD TAPI 0.02//EN" "http://api.technorati.com/dtd/tapi-002.xml"> <tapi version="1.0"> <document> <result> <url>http://pixelated-dreams.com</url> <weblog> <name>Pixelated Dreams</name> <url>http://pixelated-dreams.com</url> <author> <username>DShafik</username> <firstname>Davey</firstname> <lastname>Shafik</lastname> </author> <rssurl>http://pixelated-dreams.com/feeds/index.rss2</rssurl> <atomurl>http://pixelated-dreams.com/feeds/atom.xml</atomurl> <inboundblogs>44</inboundblogs> <inboundlinks>218</inboundlinks> <lastupdate>2006-04-26 04:36:36 GMT</lastupdate> <rank>60635</rank> </weblog> <inboundblogs>44</inboundblogs> <inboundlinks>218</inboundlinks> </result> </document> </tapi>
Here we are accessing the firstname
and lastname
properties. Even though these are not top-level
elements, they are automatically returned when accessed by name.
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Multiple items |
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If multiple items are found when accessing a value by name, an array will be returned. |
Unless you are making a request to a Zend_Rest_Server
based service, chances are you will need to send multiple arguments with your request. This is done by calling a method with the name of the argument, passing in the value as the first (and only) argument. Each of these method calls returns the object itself, allowing for chaining, or "fluent" usage. The first call, or if you pass in more than one argument is always assumed to the method when calling a Zend_Rest_Server
service.
Example 4.5. Setting Request Arguments
<?php $client = new Zend_Rest_Client('http://example.org/rest'); $client->arg('value1'); $client->arg2('value2'); $client->get(); // or $client->arg('value1')->arg2('value2')->get(); ?>
Both of the methods in the example above, will result in the following get args: ?method=arg&arg1=value1&arg=value1&arg2=value2
You will notice that the first call of $client->arg('value1');
resulted in both method=arg&arg1=value1
and arg=value1
,
this is so that Zend_Rest_Server
can understand the request properly, rather than requiring pre-existing knowledge of the service.
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Strictness of Zend_Rest_Client |
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Any REST service that is strict about the arguments it receives will likely fail
using |