CODEWITHSUNDEEP
restapijson-api
dipole_moment
dipole_moment

Reputation: 5854

REST API filtering/search on a parent resource

Suppose I have a store such as Amazon that sells a variety of products such as computers and paintings. They are quite different from each other and have their own set of fields and logic.

In addition to the typical CRUD, I need to design a JSON API that allows me to:

A. Fetch an ungrouped list of paintings and computers. For example: [computer, painting, painting, computer, ...] ordered by date published (so with filtering capability).

B. Fetch only paintings

C. Fetch only computers

The RESTful approach will typically be something like: /api/paintings and api/computers which works really well for segregated results.

But my main concern is operation A - getting an ungrouped list of paintings and products sorted by date published. The way I see it, there are three approaches:

1) Create a new standalone resource called products such as /api/products which will have filtering capability and continue to use /api/resource for specific CRUD operations.

2) Create a parent products resource which will be used for filtering operations. So I can do something like /products?order_by=published_date And for more specific resources I can do something like /products/paintings or /products/computers

3) Do not have a resource for paintings or computers. Instead have one for a generic product. I will then have most logic in the api layer and reduce the complexity of the client.

I am leaning towards approach #3 but wanted to get feedback prior to implementing since this will be a core feature of the API.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 392

Answers (2)

Tim
Tim

Reputation: 485

I've always taken the approach the your API Layer should match your object modeling. So, the answer to your question would be it depends on the source data. Well, the source data after it's object modeling.

If you have an object model for Computer and for Printer, they should be resources like you've said. Do they share any data/functions? If so, you should have an object model for that, too, perhaps: Product. Then Computer and Printer extend the Product class.

With that in mind, design the API layer to mirror it. Since Computer and Printer both extend Product. Product as a parent of the Computer and Printer resources make sense.

Upvotes: 1

KlemensE
KlemensE

Reputation: 130

In my opinion I would go for approach #3 and query the API with type of product if you search for it. 

/products?type=computers&order_by=date

Upvotes: 1

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