Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#1

Post by chx » Fri, Mar 03, 2017, 8:58 PM UTC

Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development
swanros.com

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#2

Post by Exuma » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 2:55 AM UTC

I learned about it about 20 days ago and have spent every day since then absorbing, reading and learning.

I LOVE this language / framework / OTP / methodology / community

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#3

Post by Exuma » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 2:59 AM UTC

Do you find it's a lot of extra writing for the contexts? I'm new to Phoenix and my first thought is it seemed kind of verbose to define every single 'meeting point' across 'models'. For simple apps it seems OK but I have some complicated apps with many models and interactions

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#4

Post by kkirsche » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 3:49 AM UTC

I've wanted to use Phoenix a few times but every tutorial to get me started relied 100% on ecto which for something like a transformation API was frustrating. I didn't want the complexity of a database I wanted to learn the request lifecycle in it. Overall, it was challenging with too many resources being out of date or just so focused on a different type of API than I needed to build

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#5

Post by fghgfdfg » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 4:04 AM UTC

kkirsche wrote: post #4

I've wanted to use Phoenix a few times but every tutorial to get me started relied 100% on ecto which for something like a transformation API was frustrating. I didn't want the complexity of a database I wanted to learn the request lifecycle in it. Overall, it was challenging with too many resources being out of date or just so focused on a different type of API than I needed to build

Really? I had a very different experience. I mostly just used the official Phoenix docs and never touched ecto. It was a strictly optional thing I didn't need, so I didn't touch it.

I did look at some other tutorials and I don't recall ever having issues because I wasn't using ecto. Either they weren't using it or I got what I needed anyway.

This was probably about a year ago or so. Maybe things changed at some point?

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#6

Post by bphogan » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 4:18 AM UTC

kkirsche wrote: post #4

I've wanted to use Phoenix a few times but every tutorial to get me started relied 100% on ecto which for something like a transformation API was frustrating. I didn't want the complexity of a database I wanted to learn the request lifecycle in it. Overall, it was challenging with too many resources being out of date or just so focused on a different type of API than I needed to build

I did a short video series for Pragprog.com on Phoenix that does not use a database, but does get you started.

It looks like it'll all be out of date by the time 1.3 hits though. :(

Anyway, it's at https://pragprog.com/screencast/v-bhphnx/build-real-time-web... if you're interested.

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#7

Post by plainOldText » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 4:26 AM UTC

kkirsche wrote: post #4

I've wanted to use Phoenix a few times but every tutorial to get me started relied 100% on ecto which for something like a transformation API was frustrating. I didn't want the complexity of a database I wanted to learn the request lifecycle in it. Overall, it was challenging with too many resources being out of date or just so focused on a different type of API than I needed to build

I'm working on a big Elixir project, and at first Ecto was frustrating (I was learning both Ecto and Elixir). However, upon spending a bit more time with it and learning the basic blocks that defines it, I can say it's a pleasure to work with.

I think this is the case whenever we encounter some new language or new framework/library. In the beginning it's frustrating because we don't master the basic building blocks and cannot write code fast enough. But once we have a solid foundation, a whole new world opens.

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#8

Post by the_common_man » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 5:07 AM UTC

Best part for me is the new fallback controller plug. Really well done. That and the centralized error list. This is one of the things which is miss in Go (I think this is the same in Rust, but I am not an expert).

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#9

Post by Dangeranger » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 5:31 AM UTC

kkirsche wrote: post #4

I've wanted to use Phoenix a few times but every tutorial to get me started relied 100% on ecto which for something like a transformation API was frustrating. I didn't want the complexity of a database I wanted to learn the request lifecycle in it. Overall, it was challenging with too many resources being out of date or just so focused on a different type of API than I needed to build

If you don't want to deal with a database and ecto then you should just learn Plug first as Phoenix requests and responses are built upon it.

https://github.com/elixir-lang/plug

https://elixirschool.com/lessons/specifics/plug/

Re: Phoenix 1.3 is pure love for API development

#10

Post by lilactown » Sat, Mar 04, 2017, 5:44 AM UTC

kkirsche wrote: post #4

I've wanted to use Phoenix a few times but every tutorial to get me started relied 100% on ecto which for something like a transformation API was frustrating. I didn't want the complexity of a database I wanted to learn the request lifecycle in it. Overall, it was challenging with too many resources being out of date or just so focused on a different type of API than I needed to build

I've had the same experience. Coming from Express/Node.js and other micro-frameworks in other languages, I yearn for a `mix phoenix.new --no-ecto --no-brunch --no-view --no-controller ...` Basically the bare minimum to serve a piece of HTML or JSON down a pipe.

I ended up doing what Dangeranger said and used Plug, but now I'm finding that phoenix channels would be a lot more ergonomic for the project I'm working on...