Proposal for REST Client in ZF 2

This proposal is being split into two: one for Zend\Rest\Client and another for Zend\Rest\Server

Overview

The REST client in ZF 1.x only supports XML content types. Since REST does not dictate which content type to respond with, some REST services opt to use other formats such as JSON. Additionally, the REST client can benefit from supporting hypermedia to help make services self-discoverable.

Changes to Zend_Rest_Client

Zend\Rest\Client will be updated to support various content return types, including custom ones that were not anticipated during this proposal. Optionally a hypermedia parser can help to discover hypermedia within the returned content body.

References

• Richardson Maturity Model

Component Requirements, Constraints, and Acceptance Criteria

• This component will introduce BC breaks with ZF 1.x.
• This component will support content type negotiation with built in support for XML, JSON and ATOM.
• This component will use a LIFO stack for negotiation prioritization.
• This component will support custom content types.
• This component may parse responses for HyperMedia.
• This component will support custom HyperMedia parsers.
• This component will understand ETags.
• This component may support client-side caching (e.g. to support conditional GET).
• This component may use CRUD as aliases for HTTP verbs.

Theory of Operation

The client should be easy to use. In its simplest form:

Dependencies on Other Framework Components

• Zend\Service\AbstractService
• Zend\Http\Client
• Zend\Uri

Milestones / Tasks

• Milestone 1: Acquire community acceptance of proposal
• Milestone 2: Working prototype checked in to github fork
• Milestone 3: Unit tests checked in to github fork
• Milestone 4: Acquire community acceptance of github fork
• Milestone 5: Submit pull request to zf2

Class Index

• Zend\Rest\Client\RestClient
• Zend\Rest\Client\Response\ResponseInterface
• Zend\Rest\Client\Response\Response
• Zend\Rest\Client\Negotiator\NegotiatorInterface
• Zend\Rest\Client\Negotiator\Xml
• Zend\Rest\Client\Negotiator\Json
• Zend\Rest\Client\Negotiator\Atom

Use Cases

UC-01 Simple GET request

UC-02 Creating a new resource using PUT

UC-03 Updating an existing resource

UC-04 Deleting an existing resource

UC-05 Detecting hypermedia

UC-06 Providing a custom content type negotiator for parsing custom responses (e.g. YAML).

UC-07 Conditional GET with Zend\Cache

Class Skeletons