One tool that you can use to test APIs is Postman. Postman gives you a GUI access to the power of curl. It's often a bit overkill for GET requests but it provides a nice interface for POST and PUT requests.

You can download a native Mac version of here.

To install just click the downloaded file to unzip it, click the file to open it and agree to install it.

There are two main sections that you need to update in Postman, the headers section, and body section.

The header represents the additional information that your request is sending. The main header we will need is Content-Type. This tells the server what type of data we're sending. The main values we'll use in this class is application/json.

The body is the actual data your sending. I recommend using the raw option so that you completely understand what your sending. In the raw section you can type in your JSON directly. You can also use the form option if your JSON doesn't include objects or arrays.

Another major advantage of Postman is that you can store groups of requests into collections. A collection can be imported using the import button at the top of the screen. Once you import the collection you can make the requests in the collection just by clicking a button.

REST is based around the concept of a Resource. A resource is just an object and a standardized set of URL routes for accessing information around those objects. Here are the RESTful routes:

Name | Format | Meaning | --------|---------------------------------------|---------|------------------------| Index | GET resource/ | Return multiple, often all instances of the resource | Show | GET resource/:id | Return a single resource with :id | Create | POST resource/ | Create a resource | Update | PUT resource/:id | Update resource with :id | Delete | DELETE resource/:id | Delete resource with :id | Edit | GET resource/:id/edit | Typically HTML only, form or information to update resource with :id | New | GET resource/:id/new | Typically HTML only, form of information to create resource |

To say that an API is RESTful means that if the API implements functional that corresponds to a RESTful action it uses the RESTful route. A RESTful API may not use all of the routes but if a functionality is present then it is accessed with the RESTful route. There may be additional query parameters that help control the information that is returned. REST APIs may have additional routes that are more specific to the resource if needed.

Our basic resource for this lab is the candy object.

{
	id: 1,
	name: "chewing gum",
	color: "red"
}

The goal for the lab is to write enough code so that all of the requests in this collection are implemented.

A basic starter code version has been included in this repo.

1. How can you help guard against candies being created that don't meet all the requirements(id, name, color)?
2. Can you add better error handling to the API
   1. Return status code 404 if there
   2. Return status code 422 if there is not enough information to create or add a Candy
3. Refactor the routes in a controller file.