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Tia Eastwood
Tia Eastwood

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How To Create A Fake REST API For Your Project With JSON Server

Often you may be building a demo website, or practice project and you need some data for it. As an example, say you're building a demo fashion website and you need data to represent the items for sale. What would you do?

  • You could use an existing API, but what if there is nothing suitable available?
  • You could also hardcode the data, but then you'll need to change your code later if you do decide to connect an API. You might want also want to practice/demonstrate that you know how to call an API endpoint.

With JSON Server, you can create a fake API that runs locally (perfect for development or if you just need it to present a demo!) and works just like any other API!

To begin with, install JSON Server

npm install -g json-server
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To act as your "database", you'll need to create a file called db.json (I usually put this in the root of my project). In here, you will create a JSON object with a key that will act as your API endpoint. Let's say I'm creating a website that sells bags. I'm just going to add 3 items here:

{
    "bags": [
        {
            "id": 1,
            "title": "Stylish Bag",
            "color": "orange",
            "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584917865442-de89df76afd3?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1035&q=80",
            "stock": 10
        },
        {
            "id": 2,
            "title": "Cool Bag",
            "color": "black",
            "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1548036328-c9fa89d128fa?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2069&q=80",
            "stock": 5
        },
        {
            "id": 3,
            "title": "Interesting Bag",
            "color": "blue",
            "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1594223274512-ad4803739b7c?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1057&q=80",
            "stock": 17
        }
    ]
}
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Once you've created your data, use the following command in the terminal:

json-server --watch db.json
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Cool! You can now access your API via localhost:3000/bags!

terminal

This now behaves like any other REST API. For example, if you wanted to use this in a React app, you can call your "bags" endpoint and get the data. Here is just one example of doing that:

useEffect(() => {
        axios
            .get("http://localhost:3000/bags")
            .then((res) => {
                setData(res.data);
            })
            .catch((error) => {
                console.log(error);
            });
    }, []);
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Tips

Changing the port

If you don't want json-server to run on port 3000 (maybe you have your frontend running there), you can change the port like this:

json-server --watch -p 4000 db.json
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Multiple Endpoints

You can have multiple endpoints! Simply add another key to your object. Here I have added "wallets":

{
  "bags": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "Stylish Bag",
      "color": "orange",
      "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1584917865442-de89df76afd3?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1035&q=80",
      "stock": 10
    },
    {
      "id": 2,
      "title": "Cool Bag",
      "color": "black",
      "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1548036328-c9fa89d128fa?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=2069&q=80",
      "stock": 5
    },
    {
      "id": 3,
      "title": "Interesting Bag",
      "color": "blue",
      "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1594223274512-ad4803739b7c?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1057&q=80",
      "stock": 17
    }
  ],
  "wallets": [
    {
      "id": 1,
      "title": "Leather Wallet",
      "color": "black",
      "imgurl": "https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1612023395494-1c4050b68647?ixlib=rb-1.2.1&ixid=MnwxMjA3fDB8MHxwaG90by1wYWdlfHx8fGVufDB8fHx8&auto=format&fit=crop&w=1480&q=80",
      "stock": 10
    }
  ]
}
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Now if you run

json-server --watch db.json
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again, you can access either the bags or the wallets endpoint:

terminal

Make sure to check the json-server docs to see what else you can do, and I hope you find this helpful for your projects!

Top comments (15)

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moutafatin1 profile image
moutafatin1

There is a way to create a fake JWT to prototype the authentication?

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ecyrbe profile image
ecyrbe

Yes, it's an express server. You can add custom routes like any express server to generate a valid JWT for the connecting user. And add a JWT validation middleware to protect the other endpoints.

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tiaeastwood profile image
Tia Eastwood

I'm pretty sure there will be but I haven't done that myself. It's something to investigate for sure!

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sreerajkarippala profile image
sreeraj

Nice article, #Back project may help you to setup api with JWT. #Back automatically convert app database table to API endpoint, please try at
github.com/WeAreKins/BackNode/rele...

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vladgen profile image
David

Hi, nice article. Few weeks ago I discovered DevApiService, itโ€™s a free online tool for mockup APIs or fake APIs. Itโ€™s very easy to use and you can mockup API in less than one minute.

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paddyredbeard profile image
Patrick B

Ah, very useful. I've been using http-server to do something similar, but this is a better fit for my needs. Thanks!

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laurenceabas profile image
Laurence Abas

This is awesome. I'll definitely try this on my upcoming project.

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jarvisscript profile image
Chris Jarvis

This is very useful. I could use a fake Api and server to a demo.

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avelino profile image
Thiago Avelino

Get to know the moclojer project?
github.com/moclojer/moclojer

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chismo950 profile image
chismo950

Is json server suitable for production environment?

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tiaeastwood profile image
Tia Eastwood

no, just for practice/demo purposes

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ecyrbe profile image
ecyrbe

No. It's used to mock APIs. Don't use this on production

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andrewbaisden profile image
Andrew Baisden

Good tutorial! I was using JSON Server a lot until I became confident using NodeJS.

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lambrero profile image
Avin Lambrero
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asif530 profile image
asif530

Thanks for this short and useful application. I dont get the page localhost:3000/ shows... Did it come with json server?