I’ve worked with many APIs and it’s never usually an easy task. Messing about with POST requests and then trying to handle the XML is a pain. And I thought wouldn’t it be easier for both user and developer if they could just directly interact with the database.
Is it possible to create a user which API users would connect to then assign that certain privilages? For example they would only be able to select from particular tables and columns. And basically make it so they can’t do anything malicious or anything you don’t want.
I realise that there is a lot more than just taking data so there would be certain limitations there however selecting is probably what goes on the most when it comes to API usage.
Is this a practical idea? Is it secure? I’m really not sure, I’m the furthest thing from a professional here, it’s just an idea.
You could set up a RESTful API that can speak directly to a mySQL database like PHPRestSQL. It can do all the dirty work for you, but you would have full freedom in implementing new functions or restrictions.