Access via programming languages

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Database schema before class: database_day7_end_of_class.sql
Slides from class

Python direct access example:

Node.js API example:

Server side

Client side

call_api.py

Database notes

RESTFul Web Application Programming Interface (API)

A method to provide interoperability between computer systems on the Internet using Representational State Transfer (REST) over HTTP. APIs expose a set of arbitrary operations. These operations can be called by application programs.

POST

An HTTP verb used for Creating entries in a database. Returns status code 201 if the operation is successful.

GET

An HTTP verb used for Reading entries in a database. Returns status code 200 if the operation is successful.

PUT

An HTTP verb used for Updating entries in a database. Returns status code 200 if the operation is successful.

DELETE

An HTTP verb used for Deleting entries in a database. Returns status code 200 if the operation is successful.

Server-side

Code that runs on the server in a client-server relationship. Also called the back end. This code is not normally directly available to users. In a web-based system this often includes the DBMS (database management system) and web server such as Node.js or Apache.

Client-side

Code that runs on the client in a client-server relationship. Also called the front end. This code normally runs on the user's computer either in a browser or in a local application.

Node.js

A popular open source server-side technology platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast and scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices (definition from Tutorialspoint). Code for Node.js is written in Javascript (originally Javascript only ran on the client side in web browsers).

Express

A web application framework that runs on the Node.js platform and provides a simple means to create APIs, websites, web apps and other back ends. With ExpressJS, you need not worry about low level protocols, processes, etc. (definition from Tutorialspoint).