Getting Started with RESTful HTTP API

I work at an IP camera company and we currently have an outdated CGI HTTP API interface. The CGIs are implemented in C.

I would like to learn and implement a new HTTP RESTful API so that the following type of things can be performed:

http://[ipaddr]/api/video/start
http://[ipaddr]/api/video/stop

I would like to write this RESTful API from the ground up in my spare time so I can learn this new skill.

I am very experienced in embedded C programming and Web technology front end (HTML, JS, CSS, etc), however, I would like to implement the link between the front end web UX and the application code (and/or web backend).

I would like advice on the current methods of implementing HTTP APIs. I really like to learn the 'right way' to do things before I start.

I have found that all the things I have seen such as OAuth, XAuth, REST, SOAP, implementation languages is a bit overwhelming!

Is there anyone on Stack Overflow that could provide a sensible path to learn these things? I'm very adept at self-learning but could just do with a few pointers in the right direction.

I would like to write whatever I can in C ideally as that would be the easiest way to get into the application code. However, if people recommend another language I'm happy to go with th开发者_StackOverflow中文版at if there are clear pros.

Get yourself a copy of Richardson and Ruby's RESTful Web Services (O'Reilly). They talk about how to design and implement RESTful services using several different technologies. It's so good you almost don't need anything else except RFC-2616 (HTTP 1.1) and Roy Fielding's original dissertation on REST.

There are a lot of great libraries to build on (depending on how much you want to learn directly). In the Java world, the Apache HTTP Client library is a good foundational layer. A REST framework like RESTlet automates much of the rest for you, making it relatively simple.

First, you've got to figure out what your webserver is going to be, something which is probably going to be driven by your choice of OS. Windows or Linux? Or something else?

If you're using Windows, you'll likely be using something like ASP.NET or WCF; there's good REST support in those, and you can easily find some good documentation. This will probably require implementation in a managed language, though, so expect a bit of learning curve from that.

If you're using Linux as your webserver, you'll probably want to use Apache as your webserver software, which would imply any number of different possibilities for server software; PHP, Python, etc. You can likely easily invoke C from those languages, although there are probably easier ways to do what you want than invoking C from there. Of course, Linux as a webserver gives you additional options for server software; you could always go with node.js and Express for your REST API; there's a bit of learning involved to do it well, but for blistering speed, it's hard to beat node.js.

start and stop are not resources but actions, and do not belong in a URL. Instead you should use PUT or PATCH to send a boolean such as stream=true or stream=false to a URL like http://[ipaddr]/video (no need for /api/ either)

The client sends the new state, and the camera reacts. Once the state has been changed (video started or stopped) it responds with a 200, with the new state in the response body, or 204 with no response body. Or if the operation is lengthy, you can respond with 202 Accepted and no response body.

The same can be used to start and stop /audio streams.

For more info, please read http://weblogs.java.net/blog/mkarg/archive/2010/02/14/what-hateoas-actually-means