Using Apache's Swiss Army Knife - mod_rewrite for RESTful endpoints (part III)

This is the last blog in my series on Apache's mod_rewrite.  In my previous blogs I've explained a little bit about how you can use this Apache module to redirect URLs both internally and externally.

Using Apache's Swiss Army Knife - Part I

Using Apache's Swiss Army Knife - Part II

I've provided a few examples and talked about some of the gotchas that I've encountered.  Today we're going to discuss how to use mod_rewrite to provide an API endpoint that is an alias for your web server's name without creating another virtual host.  In most cases, it makes sense to create another virtual host configuration file to implement your application API, however in the event you don't have access to Apache's configuration files, you can use mod_rewrite rules in an .htaccess file to achieve nearly the same operations.

Serving up POD & The five Cs of Good Documentation

I'm a fanatic about documentation.  As a developer that has been involved in creating tools for other developers all my career, I understand the importance of good documentation.  Creating good documentation is not easy, which is why so few people write good documentation.  Here's an easy to remember grading system for your documentation.  Does it meet the five Cs test?

 Is your documentation...

1. Correct
2. Complete
3. Comprehensible
4. Current
5. Convenient

I probably don't need to go into too much detail here, but if ain't complete, correct, comprehensible and current it may be worse than no documentation at all.  If it ain't convenient it really doesn't matter how correct, complete, comprehensible or current it is, now does it?  It's not easy meeting all 5 Cs all of the time.  Most likely your documentation will transition through various permutations of those Cs during the software development lifecycle.  So how can we at least make our documentation more convenient and accessible and at least allows us to make an attempt to meet the 5Cs?

Using Apache's Swiss Army Knife - mod_rewrite (part II)

This blog was supposed to introduce some tricks to allow you to create a new subdomain for your RESTful endpoints, but I think before we launch into more details about creating your RESTful API endpoints I should share a few relevant discoveries regarding using mod_rewrite that might be of interest.

Using Apache's Swiss Army Knife - mod_rewrite for RESTful endpoints

As I've been exploring using Bedrock for creating RESTful APIs, one of the requirements for a well crafted API is to create appropriate URIs that make sense.  I've read the phrase "you don't write RESTful APIs you DESIGN them" in more than one blog.  This usually boils down to exposing the API in a logical and hierarchical manner.  Apache's mod_rewrite is a versatile and useful tool for allowing you to create meaningful, well crafted endpoints that also work with Bedrock.