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Great job learning the basics of building a REST API with Express! Here are some things you may want to study next.
Some reading on CORS
Authentication and Authorization
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This course has introduced the basic
concepts behind building a REST API.
0:00
But there is still a lot to learn.
0:04
When you're building your own API,
there are a number of things to consider.
0:06
Here are just a few,
using a database and ORM.
0:09
CORS, user authentication,
and user authorization.
0:13
Now that you've had an introduction
to building REST APIs with xPress,
0:18
a natural next step would be to build
an API using a database and an ORM.
0:21
A database will help you maintain and
persist larger and more complex datasets.
0:26
While an ORM will help you interact
with the database more easily.
0:30
CORS, or cross-origin resource sharing
0:33
is a mechanism that allows one web
domain to communicate with another.
0:37
If you tried to build a front-end for
0:41
the REST API we just created,
you could run into problems due to CORS.
0:43
For example, if your front-end was
running from quotegenerator.com, and
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your API was running from api.quotes.com,
you'd have to do some additional work
0:51
before the two would be
allowed to communicate.
0:56
Most applications involve
some sort of login system,
0:59
which is where user authentication and
authorization come into play.
1:02
Both involve building a login system for
your application so
1:06
that only authenticated
users can use the API.
1:09
This could help you keep track of who's
submitting, updating, and deleting quotes.
1:12
Authorization involves WEP
permissions a user has,
1:17
what parts of the API
they're allowed to access.
1:21
For example, you could add restrictions so
that users can only edit and
1:24
delete quotes they've
submitted themselves.
1:27
See the teacher's notes for
more information on these subjects.
1:30
For further practice, I recommend
adding enhancements to the API.
1:34
Such as adding category
tags to the quotes and
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building a route that returns
quotes by the requested category.
1:40
As a challenge, why not take
a stab at building a client-side
1:43
application of your own
to consume this API?
1:46
You could build one from scratch or
1:49
use a framework of your
choice such as React or Vue.
1:50
You've learned a lot in this course and
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I hope you've enjoyed building
this REST API with me.
1:55
Practice, experiment, have fun,
and until next time happy coding.
1:58
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