In developing networked applications either on the web or mobile (or both), most developers choose to access their backend data and services through REST API endpoints. By keeping the data storage and processing off of the client application, you can ensure a faster user experience. But building out REST API endpoints and backend services can take a lot of precious time that you could spend building out better business logic, optimizing performance, or eliminating tech debt.
Much of the code around REST APIs is boilerplate — the same classes, methods, and functions with different data. Pretty tedious stuff. We’ve talked to a lean team of two developers who managed to build 33 REST API projects in a single year by using a better API builder.
In this article, we’re going to let you how they got to be so efficient.
Building beyond boilerplate
Let’s face it — most APIs do basic CRUD (create, read, update, and delete) operations on a database. We could cut a lot of the work out if we could abstract away the logic that connects to a database, select the fields that we need, and format it in a JSON object for transport to the requesting client application. All we really need are the cells in the database to pull data from and the fields in the JSON object that correspond with them.
Linx is a general-purpose low-code platform that does exactly this. It’s a low-code desktop application that speeds up the process of building out backend services. With a single click, you can create a barebones application, then start adding the pieces visually, which saves time jumping back and forth between code files. When you add the REST plugin, all you need to do is define the essentials of the REST API: where the endpoint is hosted, the request method, the data objects it returns or consumes, and the SQL database that it draws data from. You still need to write the SQL queries; this is low-code, not no-code.
Just like that, a whole slew of concerns about your API endpoints have been handled. Security and authentication are built-in, automatically managed in each request’s headers. Deployment is easy, so you don’t have to fiddle with build processes or a complicated CI/CD pipeline. Versioning and monitoring — all that is built into the application.
Not every API sticks to CRUD operations. Linx doesn’t hide what’s going on under the hood with the REST API code, it just creates it quickly. So if you need to create more complicated logic behind one of your routes, you can edit the code and write it yourself.
Learn more
As developers, we like building new things over buying pre-built solutions. We like solving our own problems. With a solution like Linx, you can get the best of both worlds: You can solve those problems faster without having to fuss with the repetitive tasks that come with any REST API project.
For a detailed walkthrough of how to build a low-code REST API in Linx, check out these resources
Tutorial: Consuming REST APIs in low-code
Guide: Build and host a low-code REST API
Watch:Building an API (using OpenAPI definition)
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