Creating a Rest API in PHP causing a redirect error

Question

I'm trying to work out to create a proper RESTful API in PHP. I've been following some steps from http://coreymaynard.com/blog/creating-a-restful-api-with-php/ and to me it looks like I've done everything exactly the same except when I try and go to http://localhost/api/v1/example I get an internal server error.

In the apache error log I am seeing the following:

[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:error] [pid 10272:tid 1144] [client ::1:58203] AH00124: Request exceeded the limit of 10 internal redirects due to probable configuration error. Use 'LimitInternalRecursion' to increase the limit if necessary. Use 'LogLevel debug' to get a backtrace.
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3747): [client ::1:58203] AH00121: r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/api.php
[Sat Feb 18 19:30:10.594193 2017] [core:debug] [pid 10272:tid 1144] core.c(3753): [client ::1:58203] AH00122: redirected from r->uri = /api/v1/example

My BaseAPI class (what they call API in the example) is below:

abstract class API
{
    protected $method = '';
    protected $endpoint = '';
    protected $verb = '';
    protected $args = Array();

    public function __construct($request)
    {
        header("Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *");
        header("Access-Control-Allow-Method: *");
        header("Content-Type: application/json");

        $this->args = explode('/', rtrim($request, '/'));
        $this->endpoint = array_shift($this->args);
        if (array_key_exists(0, $this->args) && !is_numeric($this->args[0]))
        {
            $this->verb = array_shift($this->args);
        }

        $this->method = $_SERVER["REQUEST_METHOD"];
        if ($this->method === "POST" && array_key_exists('HTTP_X_HTTP_METHOD', $_SERVER))
        {
            if ($_SERVER['HTTP_X_HTTP_METHOD'] === "DELETE")
            {
                $this->method = "DELETE";
            }
            else if ($_SERVER["HTTP_X_HTTP_METHOD"] === "PUT")
            {
                $this->method = "PUT";
            }
            else
            {
                throw new Exception("Unexpected header");
            }
        }

        switch ($this->method)
        {
            case 'DELETE':
            case 'POST':
                $this->request = $this->cleanInputs($_POST);
                break;
            case 'GET':
                $this->request = $this->cleanInputs($_GET);
                break;
            case 'PUT':
                $this->request = $this->clearInputs($_GET);
                $this->file = file_get_contents("php://input");
                break;
            default:
                $this->response('Invalid Method', 405);
                break;
        }
    }

    public function processAPI()
    {
        if (method_exists($this, $this->endpoint))
        {
            return $this->response($this->{$this->endpoint}($this->args));
        }
        return $this->response("No Endpoint: $this->endpoint", 404);
    }

    private function response($data, $status = 200)
    {
        header("HTTP/1.1 " . $status . " " . $this->requestStatus($status));
        return json_encode($data);
    }

    private function cleanInputs($data)
    {
        $clean_input = Array();
        if (is_array($data))
        {
            foreach ($data as $key => $value)
            {
                $clean_input[$key] = $this->cleanInputs($value);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            $clean_input = htmlspecialchars($data);
        }
        return $clean_input;
    }

    private function requestStatus($code)
    {
        $status = array(
            200 => 'OK',
            404 => 'Not Found',
            405 => 'Method Not Allowed',
            500 => 'Internal Server Error'
        );
        return ($status[$code])?$status[$code]:$status[500];
    }
}

The MyAPI file is as follows:

require_once 'BaseApi.php';

class MyAPI extends API
{
    public function __construct($request)
    {
        parent::__construct($request);
    }

    protected function example()
    {
        if ($this->method === "GET")
        {
            return "Hello to my RESTful API";
        }
        else
        {
            return "Only accepts GET requests";
        }
    }
}

My api.php is as follows:

require_once 'MyAPI.php';

try
{
    $api = new MyAPI($_REQUEST['request']);
    echo $api->processAPI();
}
catch (Exception $ex)
{
    echo $ex->getMessage();
}

My .htaccess file is as follows:

<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule api/v1/(.*)$ api/v1/api.php?request=$1 [QSA,NC,L]
</IfModule>

It looks like to me everything is exactly the same as in that article, if it makes any difference I'm using Wamp server running on Windows 10.

I use Slim PHP MVC when I try to create MVC. I looked at the tutorial and it seemed kind of complicated. Maybe give Slim a go? slimframework.com — Cogwizzle
– Cogwizzle, Commented Feb 18, 2017 at 21:41

Olaf Dietsche · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-18 20:19:57Z

1

I suspect, you have all files, .htaccess and *.php, in the same base directory.

If this is the case, the substitution api/v1/api.php will be seen as just another request for a non-existing file, because api.php is in the current directory and not in api/v1.

Therefore api/v1/example will be rewritten to api/v1/api.php?request=example, and then rewritten to api/v1/api.php?request=api.php, and then rewritten to api/v1/api.php?request=api.php, and so on.

To make this work, you must have .htaccess in the base directory and all PHP files in the subdirectory api/v1.

If you want to keep the files in one directory, the target of the rewrite rule must point to an existing script file api.php?request=$1, e.g.

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule api/v1/(.*)$ api.php?request=$1 [QSA,NC,L]

answered Feb 18, 2017 at 20:19

Olaf Dietsche

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1 Comment

Boardy Over a year ago

Ah yea that makes sense, I've given that a try and it works. Thanks for your help

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