Simple REST Server

In this tutorial, we will build a an incredibly simple REST Server. GreenLightning is built with REST as a first-class feature; this guide will demonstrate how quickly you can build a simple API that's performant and robust.

Hello World Server

For our tutorial, we will build a very simple API to post to and receive messages back.

We want to develop a server that can do the following:

  • Allow someone to send a GET request with their name in the query and receive a response

  • Post a JSON message to an endpoint and receive a modified response

For the sake of simplicity, this project lacks authentication or even proper validation. In a real application, you definitely don't want this.

Let's see what our 2 simple endpoints will look like:

Say Hello

GET http://localhost/api/hello/${NAME}

Returns a plaintext message containing the name.

Path Parameters

Response
Hello World, ${NAME}!

Post Information About Yourself

POST http://localhost/api/about

Returns a JSON message with the posted JSON slightly modified. Below in the request tab, the parameters should be formatted as JSON as demonstrated in the response.

Request Body

Response
{
    "msg": "We made Tobi 10 years older and $5000 richer.",
    "money": 6000,
    "age": 30,
    "name": "Tobi",
}

Seems simple enough, right? On the next page, you will learn how to setup your project.

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