APIlite
A set of tools to simplify the work of creating backend APIs for your frontend projects. Includes tutorials, patterns and practical examples for creating projects based on REST APIs.
Installation
Download source code and add to your project
<?php
require_once __DIR__ . '/APIlite/src/APIlite.php';
or use composer
composer require tpsoft/apilite
and add to your project
<?php
require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php';
class YourAPI extends \TPsoft\APIlite\APIlite {
/**
* My first method for greetings.
*
* @param string $name Your name
* @param int $age Your age
* @return string Greetings
*/
public function myFirstMethod(string $name, int $age): string
{
return 'Hi, I`m '.$name.' and I`m '.$age.' years old.';
}
}
Basic usage
For example, we create an API for calculator. So we create class APIcalculator and store in file test/APIcalculator.php where we defined each actions for API as public method.
<?php
/**
* Class APIcalculator
*
* A calculator class that extends the functionality of TPsoft's APIlite.
* This class provides basic arithmetic operations and a few additional
* mathematical functions.
*
*/
require_once __DIR__ . '/../src/APIlite.php';
class APIcalculator extends \TPsoft\APIlite\APIlite
{
/**
* Add two numbers.
* Standard plus operation.
*
* @param float $a The first number.
* @param float $b The second number.
* @return float The sum of the two numbers.
*/
public function add(float $a, float $b): float
{
return $a + $b;
}
/**
* Subtract two numbers.
* Standard minus operation.
*
* @param float $a The first number.
* @param float $b The second number.
* @return float The difference of the two numbers.
*/
public function subtract(float $a, float $b): float
{
return $a - $b;
}
/**
* Multiply two numbers.
* Standard multiplication operation.
*
* @param float $a The first number.
* @param float $b The second number.
* @return float The product of the two numbers.
*/
public function multiply(float $a, float $b): float
{
return $a * $b;
}
/**
* Divide two numbers.
* Standard division operation. Throws an exception if dividing by zero.
*
* @param float $a The first number.
* @param float $b The second number.
* @return float The quotient of the two numbers. Throws an exception if dividing by zero.
* @throws \Exception If dividing by zero.
*/
public function divide(float $a, float $b): float
{
if ($b == 0) {
throw new \Exception('Division by zero');
}
return $a / $b;
}
}
new APIcalculator();
It is important to extend the APIcalculator class with the \TPsoft\APIlite\APIlite class, which will provide the entire API servicing according to public methods along with JSON and HTML documentation. The HTML documentation is generated based on the documentation snippet for each method.
Outputs
When you run this subfile through the webserver, you will see the JSON documentation in the browser
{
"name": "APIcalculator",
"html_version": "http://localhost/APIlite/test/APIcalculator.php?format=html",
"typescript_version": "http://localhost/APIlite/test/APIcalculator.php?format=typescript",
"actions": [
{
"name": "add",
"doc": "/**\r\n\t * Add two numbers.\r\n\t * Standard plus operation.\r\n\t *\r\n\t * @param float $a The first number.\r\n\t * @param float $b The second number.\r\n\t * @return float The sum of the two numbers.\r\n\t */",
"description": "Add two numbers.\nStandard plus operation.",
"params": [
{
"name": "a",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The first number."
},
{
"name": "b",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The second number."
}
],
"return": "float"
},
{
"name": "subtract",
"doc": "/**\r\n\t * Subtract two numbers.\r\n\t * Standard minus operation.\r\n\t *\r\n\t * @param float $a The first number.\r\n\t * @param float $b The second number.\r\n\t * @return float The difference of the two numbers.\r\n\t */",
"description": "Subtract two numbers.\nStandard minus operation.",
"params": [
{
"name": "a",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The first number."
},
{
"name": "b",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The second number."
}
],
"return": "float"
},
{
"name": "multiply",
"doc": "/**\r\n\t * Multiply two numbers.\r\n\t * Standard multiplication operation.\r\n\t *\r\n\t * @param float $a The first number.\r\n\t * @param float $b The second number.\r\n\t * @return float The product of the two numbers.\r\n\t */",
"description": "Multiply two numbers.\nStandard multiplication operation.",
"params": [
{
"name": "a",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The first number."
},
{
"name": "b",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The second number."
}
],
"return": "float"
},
{
"name": "divide",
"doc": "/**\r\n\t * Divide two numbers.\r\n\t * Standard division operation. Throws an exception if dividing by zero.\r\n\t *\r\n\t * @param float $a The first number.\r\n\t * @param float $b The second number.\r\n\t * @return float The quotient of the two numbers. Throws an exception if dividing by zero.\r\n\t * @throws \\Exception If dividing by zero.\r\n\t */",
"description": "Divide two numbers.\nStandard division operation. Throws an exception if dividing by zero.",
"params": [
{
"name": "a",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The first number."
},
{
"name": "b",
"type": "float",
"optional": false,
"default": null,
"doc": "The second number."
}
],
"return": "float"
}
]
}
and there is also an HTML version available
To connect to the API from TypeScript (e.g. Vue application) it is possible to download the backend script
/**
* Generated by APIlite
* https://gitea.tpsoft.org/TPsoft.org/APIlite
*
* 2025-05-28 15:44:07 */
export const backend = {
endpont: window.location.origin + "APIcalculator.php",
/* ----------------------------------------------------
* General API call
*/
call(method, data, callback) {
var xhttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
xhttp.withCredentials = true;
xhttp.onreadystatechange = function() {
if (this.readyState == 4) {
if (this.status == 200) {
if (callback != null) callback(JSON.parse(this.responseText));
} else {
if (callback != null) callback({'status': 'ERROR', 'message': 'HTTP STATUS ' + this.status});
}
}
}
var form_data = new FormData();
Object.keys(data).forEach(key => {
let val = data[key];
if (typeof val == 'object') val = JSON.stringify(val);
form_data.append(key, val);
});
xhttp.open('POST', this.endpont + '?action=' + method);
xhttp.send(form_data);
},
callPromise(method, data) {
return new Promise((resolve, reject) => {
this.call(method, data, function(response) {
if (response.status == 'OK') {
resolve(response.data);
} else {
reject(response.msg);
}
});
})
},
/* ----------------------------------------------------
* API actions
*/
help() {
return this.callPromise('__HELP__', {});
},
add(a, b) {
return this.callPromise('add', {a: a, b: b});
},
subtract(a, b) {
return this.callPromise('subtract', {a: a, b: b});
},
multiply(a, b) {
return this.callPromise('multiply', {a: a, b: b});
},
divide(a, b) {
return this.callPromise('divide', {a: a, b: b});
},
};
These outputs can also be generated in the command line as follows
- for HTML
$> php APIcalculator.php --html - for TypeScript
$> php APIcalculator.php --typescript