API-only application setup in Ruby on Rails - Mini Project: Build & Apply

API-only Application Setup with Rails

📖 Scenario: You are building a simple backend API for a to-do list app. The API will only send and receive JSON data without any HTML views.

🎯 Goal: Create a new Rails API-only application with a basic setup ready to build JSON endpoints.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a new Rails application configured as API-only

Set the application name to todo_api

Configure the application to skip views, helpers, and assets

Add a simple controller to test the API setup

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

API-only Rails apps are used to build backend services that provide data to frontend apps or mobile apps via JSON.

💼 Career

Many companies build APIs with Rails to separate frontend and backend, making this skill valuable for backend and full-stack developer roles.

1

Create a new Rails API-only application

Run the command to create a new Rails application named todo_api with the --api option to make it API-only.

Ruby on Rails

# Run the command to create the Rails API-only app
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use rails new with the --api flag to create an API-only app.

2

Navigate into the application directory

Change directory into the newly created todo_api folder to start working inside the app.

Ruby on Rails

rails new todo_api --api
# Change directory into todo_api
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use cd todo_api to enter the app folder.

3

Generate a controller for testing the API

Generate a controller named todos with an action index to test the API setup. Use the Rails generator command.

Ruby on Rails

rails new todo_api --api
cd todo_api
# Generate todos controller with index action
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use rails generate controller todos index to create the controller and action.

4

Modify the todos controller to render JSON

Edit the TodosController to have the index action render a JSON response with a message { message: 'API is working' }.

Ruby on Rails

rails new todo_api --api
cd todo_api
rails generate controller todos index

# Edit app/controllers/todos_controller.rb
# Add JSON render in index action
# Your code here

Need a hint?

In TodosController, define index to render json: { message: 'API is working' }.