I’m currently joining a project in which there’s a core REST API already developed which is used for a mobile app. The next step will be to build a web app which should also consume the API.
My doubt is in which frameworks would be good for doing something like this. Normally I would use rails, but I’m not quite sure because there would be no database, since all data would be gathered from the API, I don’t need a specific framework recommendation, I would just like to know what kind of framework I should be looking for to do something like this
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I wouldn’t say that there are frameworks for consuming REST APIs. Frameworks usually deal with more elaborate problems than sending and receiving web requests. A lot of languages provides means to consume REST APIs. So in the end the question is what is the most convenient for your project.
A software would probably be in one of these 2 categories (in your case the second):
- Desktop solution (wlog mobile) – then use whatever language you want to use. You will surely find a way to get and send HTTP requests.
- Web solution (wlog mobile)- I would argue that if your application will just consume REST APIs, it would be best if you stick with purely JS solution without any server code. There are a lot of nice frameworks (e.g. Angular, Backbone, Kendo UI, etc.) that would help you with that. This way you can create really responsive designs. Or you can combine what your favourite server framework is (asp, jsp, ruby, django) with the frontend (JS) pages.
It is not that important what you use to consume the service, rather how is the service designed (and written) and how would you provide this functionality to the users.
BTW,
There is an interesting approach for “self-navigating” web services. I know that this is not something that you are responsible for doing, but anyway I have found it interesting and wanted to share it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HATEOAS