An API Builder & Code Generator
The purpose of StraightLine is to assist developers, and latter novices, to develop a simple and secure API (server-side and db code) for their web applications, with the option to generate code for the client backend and front end forms. An API describes how a client communicates with a server, and how the server communicates with a database. As such, all three need to speak the same language, so to speak, which means that a change in one needs to affect the other two.
One tidbit I picked up about php development, is that if a security measure has to be implemented in multiple places, it's best to put it in a wrapper and call the wrapper, minimize the chance of forgetting to implement it. StraightLine makes a single endpoint script file that handles security calls. It also uses a database template that forces a user/account id to be included with each database operation. This significantly reduces the possibility of developer error.
As I developed my first API, I soon realized that any change in the scheme affected several places. This is repeatitive, and for a programmer, unacceptable. I set out to map what I had for my API and ended up storing it in JSON. At this point I started thinking about wrapping the JSON with a tool that would make code changes when I changed the API. That tool has become StraightLine. It's called that because it creates a 'straight line' between the client side code, server side code and the db code, which all have to be aware of the same API schema.
- Client Side Templates for Angular
- Database Options
- Change Framework to Aurelia
- Improved Gui
- Allow Multiple Build Code Repositories
- PHP API.json interpreter