Overview

This article introduces a sample template Rails 4 app that can be used to build a tested, documented, and versioned JSON API. The app includes Rails-API, Devise for token-based authentication, and Cucumber for integration testing and up-to-date API documentation. The article explains the benefits of using Cucumber for API testing and emphasizes the use of natural language steps to create readable and expressive integration tests.

Features

Rails-API: Rails for API only apps
Devise for token based authentication: Provides a secure way to authenticate API requests using tokens
Cucumber for integration testing + up-to-date API documentation: Enables writing integration tests in a natural language format, which can also serve as documentation for the APIs
Versioning using the "Accept" header: Supports versioning of the API by specifying the version in the "Accept" header
Does not depend on cookies/session: Allows the API client to be any application that can interact with the API using HTTP requests

Summary

This article introduces a template Rails 4 app that can be used to build a tested, documented, and versioned JSON API. The app includes features such as Rails-API, Devise for token-based authentication, and Cucumber for integration testing and up-to-date API documentation. The article highlights the benefits of using Cucumber for API testing and emphasizes the use of natural language steps to create readable and expressive integration tests. It also provides installation instructions for setting up the template app.

Emilsoman

Rails 4 Api