I have a PHP-based game that currently works in your typical request/response fashion, generating and outputting pages. I wish to completely separate the presentation and game logic, so I am porting to be API-based (using Phalcon). This will also allow me to make a mobile app that can interact with the same code base.
I'm new to the whole REST API thing so I am trying to follow the guidelines set forth in RESTful Web Services. It is my understanding that the API should work as follows:
POST to /v1/users adds a new user.
GET to /v1/users returns a list of existing users... and so on.
However, the client that is consuming my API (via AJAX most likely) should only issue higher-level commands. For example, I don't want a savvy user making an API call that modifies their experience. Instead, data modification would be the side effect of a game action that takes place based on player input.
For example, the client may say "hey, attack this monster", at which point the server will verify that the player has enough energy, carry out the attack, add the gold and experience to the player, and return the result to the client. These actions are very transactional, with multiple conditions needing to be true and multiple results needing to occur in order for the action to be considered successful.
I picture this functioning somewhere along the lines of:
/v1/attack/player - with the id of the player being a post variable.
/v1/work - with the amount of time being worked as a post variable.
However, this seems like it would fall under an RPC type of architecture, as defined in the book, which I understand as not the same.
- How do I handle this scenario?
- Am I correct in thinking a REST API is appropriate for this? It would seem the nature of me needing to call remote procedures is fundamentally against what I'm reading REST is.
- Assuming I am approaching this with the wrong mindset - is there some other architecture better suited or should I simply continue with the way I mentioned seeing it work?
Any advice on whether I'm headed in the right direction and what I can do better would be very beneficial to me.
Thank you.
