Some Zend_Rest_Server issues I'm having

richmulhern · #1 (**permalink**) 03-20-2007, 01:08 AM

I'm finding Zend_Rest_Server a little limited. I'm having trouble doing the following things.

Anything beyond a basic return requires writing out all the XML. For instance I can't figure how to give my elements attributes, have multiple elements with the same name like 'book'. Most of the things I try return elements with the name 'key_0', 'key_1', 'key_2'.

Also how can I make my functions have optional parameters. I register a class 'Tracks' for a playlist or tracks. For each method I want an optional parameter for each method. I set the parameter in the method to the default option, but i am still required to use them in the querystring or Zend_Rest_Client call.

SpotSec · #2 (**permalink**) 03-21-2007, 12:49 AM

Quote:

Anything beyond a basic return requires writing out all the XML. For instance I can't figure how to give my elements attributes, have multiple elements with the same name like 'book'. Most of the things I try return elements with the name 'key_0', 'key_1', 'key_2'.

Are you trying to return an array? Or are you trying to parse the result?

Quote:

Also how can I make my functions have optional parameters. I register a class 'Tracks' for a playlist or tracks. For each method I want an optional parameter for each method. I set the parameter in the method to the default option, but i am still required to use them in the querystring or Zend_Rest_Client call.

If I remember correctly (dont quote me, its been a while) optional parameters are not supported by rest, soap, xmlrpc etc...

If you haven't looked at the manual carefully, I suggest you do

Zend Framework

richmulhern · #3 (**permalink**) 03-21-2007, 05:46 AM

Thanks for the reply!

I don't have the exact code in front of me because I'm no longer at work, but I'm pretty sure I can recall the scenario. My function was returning an array. What I wanted to was use each key in the array as a 'track' element in my XML.

PHP Code:


			
function getTracks()  {
    return array('Track1', 'Track2', 'Track3');
}

The XML would return something like this obviously:

Code:

<key_0>Track1</key_0>
<key_1>Track2</key_1>
<key_2>Track3</key_2>

I've played around with it a few different ways and haven't found a solution other than just using simpleXML.

As for the optional parameters I got the idea from flickrs API. See this page: Flickr Services: Flickr API: flickr.activity.userComments or Flickr Services: Flickr API: flickr.interestingness.getList

For instance we have some tracks that are considered promotional tracks. A user may want to reserve their search to just these promotional tracks, or all tracks. By default I'd like it to be all tracks so it'd be nice if when a parameter is optional in a function that it could also be optional in the URI parameters.

Code:

public function getTracks($genreId, $promo=false)

could work as:

Code:

http://api.domain.com/v1/catalog/getTracks?genreId=1&promo=true

or

Code:

http://api.domain.com/v1/catalog/getTracks?genreId=1

SpotSec · #4 (**permalink**) 03-21-2007, 11:05 PM

To get the array format you wanted I am not exactly sure, but it should like

PHP Code:


			
return array('Track' => array('track1', 

                                           'track2', 

                                           'track3'));

Optional parameters are usually up to the server, generally most of the time I have not seen it implemented. Zend_Rest unfortunately does not support optional parameters, but you can easily change that by extending it.

PHP Code:


			
if (count($calling_args) < count($func_args)) {

    throw new Zend_Rest_Server_Exception('Invalid Method Call to ' . $this->_method . '.   Requires ' . count($func_args) . ', ' . count($calling_args) . ' given.', 400);

}

juangon · #5 (**permalink**) 03-30-2007, 06:17 AM

One solution I have discovered about passing arrays with Zend_Rest is ENCODING de array before sending in the Zend_Rest_Server and DECODING it when receiving from the client. I am doing this with the Zend_Json_Encoder::encode and Zend_Json_Decoder::decode.

After doing this the client received the objects the same way the server sent it, but I encounter other problems. In my case I had problems with some spanish special characters (encoding), but I solved this by using recursive functions that encodes/decodes in utf8 every position of the array (see the php function array_walk).

SpotSec · #6 (**permalink**) 05-02-2007, 12:48 AM

o_0 that is all I have to say

jbeall · #7 (**permalink**) 08-30-2008, 06:50 PM

Here's what I did to work around the issue with returning arrays. I put the lines I added/changed in red bold.

Code:

class JoshuaBeall_Rest_Server extends Zend_Rest_Server {


    /**
     * Recursively iterate through a struct
     *
     * Recursively iterates through an associative array or object's properties
     * to build XML response.
     *
     * @param mixed $struct
     * @param DOMDocument $dom
     * @param DOMElement $parent
     * @return void
     */
    protected function _structValue($struct, DOMDocument $dom, DOMElement $parent)
    {
        $struct = (array) $struct;

        foreach ($struct as $key => $value) {
            if ($value === false) {
                $value = 0;
            } elseif ($value === true) {
                $value = 1;
            }

            if (ctype_digit((string) $key) || !ctype_alnum($key)) {
                $index = $key;
                $key = 'data';
            }

            if (is_array($value) || is_object($value)) {
                $element = $dom->createElement($key);
                $this->_structValue($value, $dom, $element);
            } else {
                $element = $dom->createElement($key);
                $element->appendChild($dom->createTextNode($value));
            }

            if(isset($index))
            	$element->setAttribute('index',$index);
            $parent->appendChild($element);
        }
    }	
}

Then, in order to use your class, you would do something like this:

$server = new JoshuaBeall_Rest_Server();
$server->setClass('JoshuaBeall_WebApi_MainApi');
$server->handle();

Hope that helps!

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