# Where to start for developing a service REST API? **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [September 10, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-start-for-developing-a-service-rest-api/194768 "2010-09-10T08:05:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markus\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Markus\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Markus_F)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 8:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-start-for-developing-a-service-rest-api/194768/1 "2010-09-10T08:05:33Z")
Hi, I’m toying with the idea of a private project which exposes a HTTP REST API. It will not start out with any HTML/UI stuff at first and will be strictly json (because a desktop client already exists), although a HTML UI /may/ be developer later to ease things. Now I don’t know if it’s a good idea to start off with Rails for such a thing (honestly, I really want to keep things small) but if not Rails, I’m actually lost as in that case what alternatives are generally available. In the end I indent it to run it over my Apache which already provides my HTTPS and authentication infrastructure; but I don’t mind if it doesn’t run within Apache and I just need to proxy the request to some custom Ruby server. Some starting points would be very helpful. thanks, - Markus ---
**Author:** ![Markus\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Markus\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Markus_F)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 9:29am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-start-for-developing-a-service-rest-api/194768/2 "2010-09-10T09:29:22Z")
Markus F. wrote: > Now I don’t know if it’s a good idea to start off with Rails for such a > thing (honestly, I really want to keep things small) but if not Rails, > I’m actually lost as in that case what alternatives are generally > available. Look at Sinatra. You’ll be amazed what you can build with three lines of code 🙂 The framework itself is basically one source file and easy to understand in its entirety. > In the end I indent it to run it over my Apache which already provides > my HTTPS and authentication infrastructure; but I don’t mind if it > doesn’t run within Apache and I just need to proxy the request to some > custom Ruby server. Look at Phusion Passenger, which will let you run any Rack-based app (including Rails and Sinatra apps) within Apache, automatically taking care of starting and stopping app processes as required. It starts processes by first making a template process and then forking it whenever a new child is required. If you combine it with Ruby Enterprise Edition (Ruby with copy-on-write-friendly garbage collector) then you’ll also get a lot more memory sharing between these processes. ---
**Author:** ![Markus\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@Markus\_F](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Markus_F)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/where-to-start-for-developing-a-service-rest-api/194768/3 "2010-09-10T17:02:24Z")
Hi Brian, On 10.09.2010 09:29, Brian C. wrote: > Look at Sinatra. You’ll be amazed what you can build with three lines of > code 🙂 The framework itself is basically one source file and easy to > understand in its entirety. You’re right, I’m definitely amazed. It’s incredible how easy things can work. > Look at Phusion Passenger, which will let you run any Rack-based app > (including Rails and Sinatra apps) within Apache, automatically taking > care of starting and stopping app processes as required. > > It starts processes by first making a template process and then forking > it whenever a new child is required. If you combine it with Ruby > Enterprise Edition (Ruby with copy-on-write-friendly garbage collector) > then you’ll also get a lot more memory sharing between these processes. Thanks for the future pointers, I’ll see how far I can really get with the Sinatra app, this looks really very well suited. thanks, - Markus