Question

I am trying to build a web API with CodeIgniter as PHP framework.

This is not a REST api. It is just a Web api which mean all queries will be POST queries.

A typical query will look like this

http://host/api1/user/get_name

and

http://host/api2/user/get_name

Under such circumstances api1 and api2 become controllers and user becomes a method under it.

I am not happy with this because then my api1 and api2 classes become too large and also I dont like to mix unrelated code in a single class.

What can I do ? Can I play with my .htaccess file or the routing configuration such that everytime the server receives a request of the form \^api\ it forwards it to appropriate controller ?

Please note that api1 and api2 are not the only controllers in my system.

Answer 1

You have to consider the couple of things

1. Are they interdependent?
2. You must have some specific reason for maintaining 2 web APIs.

If they are not interdependent then i will recommend you to do this

http://host1/user/get_name
http://host2/user/get_name

If they are interdependent then you must do

http://host/api1/user/get_name
http://host/api2/user/get_name

Reason behind that is you do not need to maintain the 2 different models.

For example, if you made some changes in a X_model.php, you have to upload that on both server.

And you can create folder under controller. I am very confirm about that. I have done it in codeigniter 1.7.

So you can create folder respectively and continue with it.!