How to use curl for HTTP request types
Curl basics
What is curl: curl is command-line tool to transfer data to and from the server
GET request using curl
$curl http://localhost:3000/api
curl is the command to use the curl tool
http://localhost:3000/api is the route from which we want to get data
The default curl http request is GET so we do not have to specify the the type of request in the command
NOTE:
your server must listen for the client’s GET request at http://localhost:3000/api and the server’s response must be to display all data in the database
your server must handle each route you visit such as http://localhost:3000/api
you can also use GET to retrieve one piece of data using a unique identifier, like an ID eg. http://localhost:3000/api/users/61326891216b79d8768c6edd
POST request using curl
$curl -d “name=Alex&age=34” -X POST http://localhost:3000/api/users
curl is the command to use the curl tool
-d is the command to specify that the next piece of code is data
because we have more than one properties of our object to post in our DB we use quotation marks “”
ie. “name=Alex&age=34” properties are separated using &
-X is the command to specify the type of HTTP request sent
in this case we are sending a POST HTTP request
http://localhost:3000/api/users is the route that handles posting data
NOTE:
your server must listen for the client’s POST request at http://localhost:3000/api/users
your server must take in the parameter of the request, the id and find an entry in the database with that id. If no entry exists, return an error
your server’s response must be to take the data in the body of the request and place it in the database
PUT request using curl
PUT is a request for updating an entry entirely in the database
$curl -d “name=KimPossible&age=56” -X PUT http://localhost:3000/api/users/61326891216b79d8768c6edd
curl is the command to use the curl tool
-d is the command to specify that the next piece of code will be the data
because we have more than one properties of our object to post in our DB we use quotation marks “”
ie. ”name=Alex&age=35” properties are separated using &
-X is the command to specify the type of HTTP request
in this case we are sending a HTTP PUT request
http://localhost:3000/api/users/:id is the route that handles putting data
replace :id with the actual id of the entry in your database update entirely
id value is known as the parameter of the request
NOTE:
your server must listen for the client’s PUT request at http://localhost:3000/api/users/:id
your server must take in the parameter of the request, the id and find an entry in the database with that id. If no entry exists, return an error
your server’s response must be to take the data in the body of the request and update it entirely with the new data, in this case update old name Alex with new name KimPossible and old age 34 with new age 56
PATCH request using curl
PATCH is a request for updating one property of an entry in the database
$curl -d name=John -X PATCH http://localhost:3000/api/users/61326891216b79d8768c6edd
curl is the command to use the curl tool
-d is the command to specify that the next piece of code will be data
and the property sent is only one with value of John
-X is the command to specify the type of HTTP request
in this case we are sending a HTTP PATCH request
http://localhost:3000/api/users/:id is the route that handles patching data
replace :id with the actual id of the entry in the database to update
the id is the unique identifier for each entry in your database
id value is known as the parameter of the request
NOTE:
your server must listen for the client’s PATCH request at http://localhost:3000/api/users/:id
your server must take in the parameter of the request, the id and find an entry in the database with that id. If no entry exists, return an error
your server’s response must be to take the data in the body of the request and replace it with the new property, in this case replace old name KimPossible with new name John
DELETE request using curl
DELETE is a request for deleting an entry in the database
$curl -X DELETE http://localhost:3000/api/users/61326891216b79d8768c6edd
curl is the command to use the curl tool
-X is the command to specify that the next piece of code is the HTTP request type
in this case the HTTP request is HTTP DELETE request
http://localhost:3000/api/users/:id is the route that handles deleting data
replace :id with the actual entry of the id in the database in this example the id used is 61326891216b79d8768c6edd
the id value is known as the parameter of the HTTP request
NOTE:
your server must listen for the client’s DELETE request at http://localhost:3000/api/users/:id
your server must take in the parameter of the request, the id and find an entry in the database with that id. If no entry exists, return an error
your server’s response must be to take the data in the body of the request and delete it from the database
Congrats! You now know how to use curl to make RESTful API requests from client to server via the command line.
