As our mobile devices become increasingly connected, client-server communications are also becoming increasingly necessary. Thankfully, a new guide has emerged that helps users setup a RESTful web API.
The new guide comes from XDA Forum Member Alkonic, and covers topics including setting up a database and PHP scrip, testing your new database server, and finally how to access this from Android. The guide is aimed towards relatively seasoned developers who have a working dev environment and have already written apps, but lack experience with MySQL or PHP.
What do budding cloud-enabled developers need to get started? Not much: an Android device to test with and a computer running on the same network, an Apache/MySQL/PHP server such as WAMP for Windows, and Postman Rest Client for Chrome. Thankfully the Alkonic also breaks summarizes the steps for those new to client-server communication:
- The client makes a request using a HTTP POST to a server
- The PHP script queries the MYSQL server
- The PHP script gets the SQL data
- The PHP script puts the data into an array and assigns keys for the values. The script then outputs the data as a JSON array. JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a standard for data exchange, and formats the data in a way both humans and computers can easily read.
- The app parses the JSON and displays the data.
To learn more, head over to the guide thread.