Rails API Application

As a Rails developer, I did not have a chance to create a Rails API application from the scratch. So I thought it would be great experience to build a simple API app.

Rails version 5 supports API only applications so let’s start by creating todo-backend with a magical argument --api.

$ rails _5.1.3_ new todo-backend -T --api
  create  README.md
  create  Rakefile
  create  config.ru
  create  .gitignore
  create  Gemfile
  ...

• _5.1.3 specifies the Rails version.
• -T skips the default testing framework.
• --api tells Rails that we want an API application.

Then the Rails API app is created and is little bit different than a regular Rails app.

Gemfile

• Jquery and turbolinks gems are removed

application.rb

• config.api_only = true

application_controller.rb

• won’t check for CSRF protection
• inherits from ::API

# before
class ApplicationController < ActionController::Base end

# after
class ApplicationController < ActionController::API end

References

• Using Rails for API-only Applications
• Build a RESTful JSON API With Rails 5 - Part One
• Build a RESTful JSON API With Rails 5 - Part Two
• Build a RESTful JSON API With Rails 5 - Part Three