Server-side MediaWiki interface for integration with Yii project - yii

I need to integrate MediaWiki in my Yii project.
Is MediaWiki-API URL-based only?
Yii and MW on same server. I want to manipulate with php-commands, not cUrl.

It is possible to call the API internally, though it requires some understanding of MediaWiki's inner workings. I suggest you start reading at API:Calling internally

Related

Is there any headless CMS written on Yii?

I'm searching for headless CMS on Yii2 to integrate it with my web app. The problem is I need only the one for editing database content. I don't need a typical CMS with caching, templates, pages and many other things.
Luya CMS supports headless use. From their site:
As LUYA is built upon the concept of REST APIs, providing headless access to the database content of LUYA is a no brainer. You can either access the APIs or the CMS admin APIs
If that is too complex to your need you can easily build REST API application based on your DB structure and support only functionality that you really need. I hope this helps.

Is there any solution for generating the restfual api code both for client and server

The functions for operating the restful api is quite same. Is there any project that can generate the source code for different platform such android,ios and backend stuff.
I suggest you to use API description languages such Swagger ou RAML.
After having described your RESTful application with a language like this, you will be able to generate things like server skelekons and client sdks with different technologies and languages. You can even generate documentations.
With Swagger, swagger-codegen will do that. swagger-ui may also interest you for the documentation part.
To finish, I would like to mention the Restlet studio that allows to define graphically and quickly the structure of RESTful applications and generate then the corresponding Swagger and RAML contents. The APISpark plaform provides a mecanism to introspect Restlet applications and generate the corresponding contents with these languages. It also allow you to generate a set of server skelekons and client sdks.
Hope it helps you.
I will suggest you to use Spring RESTful webservices starter kit. Which will manage your back-end with centralized database. Also Spring has its own android libs to communicate with REST Apis.

Can I use ravendb in a javascript SPA

I am developing a application that is using backbone.js for most of the front end logic and was thinking of using sqlite for storage, but i have run into a few complications with it and need to switch to another NoSQL database.
I see on ravendb's site that it was created in C# and you need a .net compiler. Most of the docs are for ASP MVC type application. I can not go this root because we are developing this as a tablet application with no microsoft based technologies on the client side ( because we want it to work with android and apple )
The server however will be .NET and so i figured this might be do able. Just wondering if this is worth pursuing and if anyone has had any experience using ravendb? Or should i go for mongodb?
It is possible to expose RavenDB directly to a JavaScript application, sure. But it's usually not recommended. The main reason is security, but there are many other reasons to have a middle-layer.
For example, you often need a server-side location to perform application logic. Not everything can be done in the database itself, and if you do it all in the application then you will probably send a lot more data to the app than it really needs. Over the internet, that could mean a slow app.
The route many people take, is to use ASP.Net WebAPI, or ServiceStack, or another similar framework. This gives you a way to expose REST endpoints that your JavaScript app can call. You can connect to RavenDB from there.
Also, you seem to have the misconception that if you used ASP.Net MVC on the server that you couldn't target Apple or Android. That's just false. Whether you use a SPA approach or a traditional approach, you are delivering standards-based content, such as HTML, CSS, JSON and JavaScript.
Yes, You can use it. Actually RavenDB's server is a RESTful web service, which means you can work with it with any kinds of HTTP clients. These clients should be able to issue standard HTTP verbs like GET, PUT, DELETE etc.
ASP MVC is server side. I still at a loss as to why you would want to expose your db to a clientside piece. It is completely worth doing in a server side piece, but do not expose something like a db directly to your client.

Can we use REST API and custom templates?

I'd like to create a website with authentication using REST framework. Well I'd not like to use it because I didn't understand everything about it, but I have to.
Can I use the REST API and yet have custom templates for administration and simple browsing ?
What I mean is that when I did the REST tutorial (on their website), I didn't see at all where I could put my templates instead of the ones generated by REST. How can I for example use the authentication of REST with my interface, my web template ?
Cannot figure out what do you mean by custom templates ?
Incase you want to begin with REST then you may start with jersey framework. For Security you may use OPenID or the latest OAuth2.0 specs
Here is my tutorial for REST + OAuth2.0
http://restful-fundamentals.blogspot.in/2013/02/rest-and-http.html
http://restful-fundamentals.blogspot.in/2013/04/oauth-20-introducation.html
Google code repo: http://restful-fundamentals.blogspot.in/2013/04/svn-repository-oauth20-spectifications.html

RESTful API - Custom Application - C#, Java, php?

This is really basic.I want to implement a RESTful web API.
Now I know you can write custom applications and scripts to integrate with the API.
What I need to know:
In what languages can you write this API? C#, Java, php?
When building/programming a program that implements this API, is this the client and the software that issued the API the server? (eg. Dropbox would be the server and the custom app that integrates with the Dropbox API is the Client?
Thank you.
A REST API can be built in any programming language that allows you to handle HTTP requests (or can be attached to a Web server as a handler for requests). The two methods I've been using:
Stand-alone Windows service implementing a REST service using WCF
WEB server Apache + PHP
You are correct about the terminology. A program consuming a service is called the client, a program providing a service is called the server (while actually in the PHP approach, Apache would be the server as it is taking the request and having the script handle it).
Additional nitpicking: JQuery is not a language, but a framework to help you use some JavaScript features more easily.
On your comment Recap:
Close :-) The Client transfers JSON/XML/whatever to a server using HTTP requests. The Client can be written in any language that can perform HTTP requests.
On the server side, there needs to be some application that handles the HTTP requests (service), also written in any language, as long as it "speaks" HTTP.
The API is the definition of which operations are possible, for example, adding user accounts, getting the current time, etc. (this is what you define - what do you want your service to do?).
The JSON/XML/whatever that you transfer is the workload, the parameters for the API call. For example, if you want to add a new user to your system, the workload could be the new user name, the real name, the eMail address and some other details about the user. If the API call returns the current server time, you might not need any parameters at all, but you get back JSON/XML/whatever from the service.
The actual call being made is determined by the URL you call. For example, the URL for adding a user could be http://localhost/myrestservice/adduser and you'd perform a POST request against that URL with the required workload. For the time example, the URL could be http://localhost/myrestservice/getservertime and you'd perform a GET request against that URL.
I suggest that you read about how REST services actually work before you start, as I see some question marks on your face ;-)
Short:
API = available operations (=> URLs)
Parameters to API calls = JSON/XML/Plain Text/whatever
Client = calls the service through HTTP
Service = handles the calls, replies to client in response to HTTP requests
If you are a php programmer and familiar with Codeigniter framework then go here : Working with RESTful Services in CodeIgniter.
visit also : Rest Tutorial
First of all, you should begin with learning what is a RESTful API.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer
http://www.restapitutorial.com/
http://rest.elkstein.org/
In what languages can you write this API? C#, Java, php, jQuery?
You can write an API in any language. What can help is the framework you'd be using. JQuery is not a language, but a framework for integrating Javascript application in every web browser, so it won't help.
I'd advice you to use a microframework to write your first RESTful API, because they usually are easy to use and help focus on the important (bottle/flask in python, express in javascript, silex in php, spark in java or nina in C#)
When building/programming a program that implements this API, is this the client and the software that issued the API the server? (eg. Dropbox would be the server and the custom app that integrates with the Dropbox API is the Client?
You're right, the server is providing you the service, hence the API. The client is user to that API, and implementing it into something useful.
As most of the people stated already, you can do this in just about any language.
Might I suggest that you look into NodeJS? If so, check out Restify: http://mcavage.github.io/node-restify/
There's a nice community behind NodeJS and I think it's quite open to newcomers. Just try not to pick up bad habits from JavaScript pitfalls. If you're new to programming, I'd suggest reading some intro book.
good luck!