For example)
http://restful.com/api/feedx/user/id/1 (This is example I just made up)
Above example returns the data whose id is 1 in feedx.

Let’s see how twitter use RESTful API
http://api.twitter.com/1/users/show/noradio.xml
When you click this URL, it will return all the information about user ‘noradio’.
Twitter is planning to have many versions of API now; so, number 1 in above URL is actually version number.

As you see, REST is not some kind of complicated rocket science architecture..
It’s just all about how to design URI to represent data. Examples are very simple but you might need to think a lot when you design RESTful dealing with a lot of data considering some conflict between URL..

For authentication, token or api_key is usually part of http request calling REST api and using curl in client side is very useful to handle the result. (http://www.yoursite.com/items/1.xml?api_key=213egfewgr)

Some developers like using many SQL queries writing down every logic in their code..
However, I am telling you that there is big difference between using one SQL that includes all logic and many SQL queries with messy source code that has all logic. ( I am not discussing this in this article..)

Developer had to understand and have a clear concept of SET to implement what I mentioned above with One SQL but most of developers had a problem with it because the way to write a programing code was all about PROCEDURE that’s totally opposite from SET.

Luckily Oracle announced Analytic Function from version 8.1.6 and then developer who doesn’t have a SET concept can write a very good and effective SQL to make a report.  But let’s remember that this Analytic Function is only available in Oracle DB and the recent trend is small DB for light App that’s mostly Web App.  That’s why Mysql, Postgre, etc are getting more popular.. What if you need to make a report that has complicated cumulative sum with many levels in other DB?

Function is just function and tool is just tool..Developer using SQL should understand SET first and then use whatever function and tool they want..

Following is just example of SQL using Analytic Function and the next one is just SQL using SET concept.

I wrote following query based on default schema in Oracle with scott user.

Example of Analytic Function
Select deptno as dept, ename as name, sal as salary,
row_number() over (Partition by deptno order by ename) as “SEQ in dept”,
sum(sal) over (Partition by deptno order by ename) as “Cumulative Sum in dept”,
row_number() over (order by deptno, ename) as “SEQ”,
sum(sal) over (order by deptno, ename) as “Cumulative Sum”
from emp;

Example of just using SET concept
Select emp1.deptno, emp1.ename, emp1.sal, sum(emp.sal), count(*)
from emp emp, emp emp1
where emp.deptno = emp1.deptno
and emp.ename <= emp1.ename
group by emp1.deptno, emp1.ename, emp1.sal

In this post, I will explain how to install MAMP and Virtual hosts.  Just so you know, I am using Snow Leopard; however, all this might apply to different Mac OS as well.

Installing MAMP is quite straightforward..just a couple of clicks..that’s it..
Ah..don’t forget to set to Default Apache and MySQL Ports in Preference -> Port option

And then you need Symfony project that you can download from Symfony Site
When you are not familiar with Symfony, it’s good idea to download ‘Sand Box’ in above link.

Ok..now all following things have to be done consequently..

1. Make a Directory for your Symfony Project that will be your root directory for web
$ mkdir /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/myproject

2. Let’s check out Symfony from SVN (
sudo /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin/peardev channel-discover pear.symfony-project.com
sudo /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin/peardev install symfony/symfony-1.2.9 (This can be different depending on version)

3. To use Symfony command on the command line, you need to make symbolic link like followings..
cd /usr/local/bin
$ sudo ln -s /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin/symfony symfony

4. Initialize it
cd /Applications/MAMP/htdocs/myproject
symfony generate:project myproject

5. Let’s generate Symfony app
Symfony generate:app myproject

6. Modify config/ProjectConfiguration.class.phpOpen above file and change require_once blahblahblah to require_once ‘Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/lib/php/symfony/autoload/sfCoreAutoload.class.php’;

7. Set up a virtual host with Apache.
Please open /Applications/MAMP/conf/apache/httpd.conf and please add following code at the bottom.

NameVirtualHost *

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName myproject
DocumentRoot “/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/myproject/web”
DirectoryIndex index.php
Alias /sf /Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/lib/php/data/symfony/web/sf
<Directory “/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/lib/php/data/symfony/web/sf”>
AllowOverride All
Allow from All
</Directory>
<Directory “/Applications/MAMP/htdocs/myproject/web”>
AllowOverride All
Allow from All
</Directory>
</VirtualHost>

8. open /etc/hosts file and add
sudo vi/etc/hosts

Then add 127.0.0.1  myproject to the end of the file. My hosts file looks like this:

##
# Host Database
#
# localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
# when the system is booting. Do not change this entry.
##
127.0.0.1       localhost

127.0.0.1       myproject

9. Restart your Apache in MAMP console.

10. Type http://myproject in web broswer~~~

11. Even if you finish all above, you might get error when you using propel stuff in symfony because now you have two PHP in your MAC.  PHP in MAMP is supposed to be used for symfony; so, let’s mofify your .bash_profile

sudo vi ~/.bash_profile
PATH=”/Applications/MAMP/bin/php5/bin:${PATH}”
export PATH

And then restart terminal..now try some propel command like symfony propel:insert-sql
I assume that you already set up db connecetion using database.yml here.

If you find any problem from this posting and still struggling to get it done, please feel free to contact me