I am planning to write an API using PHP and and I am very interested in HTTP protocol type of API that exists but I don't know what people call that type of API. I think you can point me towards the best guide if I let you know how I want the developers to use it.
Assuming there are following functions.
Now the Login should take 2 parameters Username and Password of the user that exist in the database. It should then return a token which will be used to request other resources like "GetRequests" function. So once the user has the token, s/he can call "GetRequests" passing the token and will get the information.
The SignUp function works the same way as login but the input parameters are different. It also returns a token and can be used to make other requests for resources.
There are many other functions but I believe these are enough to get an idea of what type of API I am talking about. Can you please guide me as which Tools or Frameworks I can use to develop this sort of API quickly and easily.
You don't need any specific tools or frameworks to write such a thing or to put it another way, you can use any framework you want. A typical web API "function" works just like an ordinary web page, the only difference is that is doesn't accept cookies (and other browser-specific http headers) and usually returns its output as xml or json rather than html.
What you are describing is a general implementation pattern, and isn't specific to any single approach of implementing web services.
Nowadays, many web service API's are implemented either using REST or SOAP. You would be able to implement what you are describing with either of these.
You can get a technical overview through the above Wikipedia links, or, simply google REST vs. SOAP, and you'll get lots of pages giving you the good and the bad of both approaches.
My advice would be to Learn REST, JSON. I think this tutorial Working with RESTful Services in CodeIgniter might be interesting to study.
maybe something like this ?
$command = $_REQUEST['command'];
$param = $_REQUEST['param'];
echo api::$command($param);
class api{
static function saySomething($param){
return $param;
}
}
and try access the page with
http://localhost/test.php?command=SaySomething¶m=what