311 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
311 lines
12 KiB
Markdown
---
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stage: none
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group: unassigned
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info: To determine the technical writer assigned to the Stage/Group associated with this page, see https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/ux/technical-writing/#assignments
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---
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# API style guide
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This style guide recommends best practices for API development.
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## Instance variables
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Please do not use instance variables, there is no need for them (we don't need
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to access them as we do in Rails views), local variables are fine.
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## Entities
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Always use an [Entity](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/lib/api/entities) to present the endpoint's payload.
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## Documentation
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Each new or updated API endpoint must come with documentation, unless it is internal or behind a feature flag.
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The docs should be in the same merge request, or, if strictly necessary,
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in a follow-up with the same milestone as the original merge request.
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See the [Documentation Style Guide RESTful API page](documentation/restful_api_styleguide.md) for details on documenting API resources in Markdown as well as in OpenAPI definition files.
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## Methods and parameters description
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Every method must be described using the [Grape DSL](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape#describing-methods)
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(see <https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/lib/api/environments.rb>
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for a good example):
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- `desc` for the method summary. You should pass it a block for additional
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details such as:
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- The GitLab version when the endpoint was added. If it is behind a feature flag, mention that instead: _This feature is gated by the :feature\_flag\_symbol feature flag._
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- If the endpoint is deprecated, and if so, its planned removal date
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- `params` for the method parameters. This acts as description,
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[validation, and coercion of the parameters](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape#parameter-validation-and-coercion)
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A good example is as follows:
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```ruby
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desc 'Get all broadcast messages' do
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detail 'This feature was introduced in GitLab 8.12.'
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success Entities::BroadcastMessage
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end
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params do
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optional :page, type: Integer, desc: 'Current page number'
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optional :per_page, type: Integer, desc: 'Number of messages per page'
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end
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get do
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messages = BroadcastMessage.all
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present paginate(messages), with: Entities::BroadcastMessage
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end
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```
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## Declared parameters
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> Grape allows you to access only the parameters that have been declared by your
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`params` block. It filters out the parameters that have been passed, but are not
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allowed.
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– <https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape#declared>
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### Exclude parameters from parent namespaces
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> By default `declared(params)`includes parameters that were defined in all
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parent namespaces.
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– <https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape#include-parent-namespaces>
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In most cases you should exclude parameters from the parent namespaces:
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```ruby
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declared(params, include_parent_namespaces: false)
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```
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### When to use `declared(params)`
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You should always use `declared(params)` when you pass the parameters hash as
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arguments to a method call.
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For instance:
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```ruby
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# bad
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User.create(params) # imagine the user submitted `admin=1`... :)
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# good
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User.create(declared(params, include_parent_namespaces: false).to_h)
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```
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NOTE:
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`declared(params)` return a `Hashie::Mash` object, on which you must
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call `.to_h`.
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But we can use `params[key]` directly when we access single elements.
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For instance:
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```ruby
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# good
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Model.create(foo: params[:foo])
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```
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## Array types
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With Grape v1.3+, Array types must be defined with a `coerce_with`
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block, or parameters, fails to validate when passed a string from an
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API request. See the [Grape upgrading
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documentation](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/blob/master/UPGRADING.md#ensure-that-array-types-have-explicit-coercions)
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for more details.
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### Automatic coercion of nil inputs
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Prior to Grape v1.3.3, Array parameters with `nil` values would
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automatically be coerced to an empty Array. However, due to [this pull
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request in v1.3.3](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/pull/2040), this
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is no longer the case. For example, suppose you define a PUT `/test`
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request that has an optional parameter:
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```ruby
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optional :user_ids, type: Array[Integer], coerce_with: ::API::Validations::Types::CommaSeparatedToIntegerArray.coerce, desc: 'The user ids for this rule'
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```
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Normally, a request to PUT `/test?user_ids` would cause Grape to pass
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`params` of `{ user_ids: nil }`.
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This may introduce errors with endpoints that expect a blank array and
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do not handle `nil` inputs properly. To preserve the previous behavior,
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there is a helper method `coerce_nil_params_to_array!` that is used
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in the `before` block of all API calls:
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```ruby
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before do
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coerce_nil_params_to_array!
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end
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```
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With this change, a request to PUT `/test?user_ids` causes Grape to
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pass `params` to be `{ user_ids: [] }`.
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There is [an open issue in the Grape tracker](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape/issues/2068)
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to make this easier.
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## Using HTTP status helpers
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For non-200 HTTP responses, use the provided helpers in `lib/api/helpers.rb` to ensure correct behavior (`not_found!`, `no_content!` etc.). These `throw` inside Grape and abort the execution of your endpoint.
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For `DELETE` requests, you should also generally use the `destroy_conditionally!` helper which by default returns a `204 No Content` response on success, or a `412 Precondition Failed` response if the given `If-Unmodified-Since` header is out of range. This helper calls `#destroy` on the passed resource, but you can also implement a custom deletion method by passing a block.
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## Using API path helpers in GitLab Rails codebase
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Because we support [installing GitLab under a relative URL](../install/relative_url.md), one must take this
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into account when using API path helpers generated by Grape. Any such API path
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helper usage must be in wrapped into the `expose_path` helper call.
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For instance:
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```haml
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- endpoint = expose_path(api_v4_projects_issues_related_merge_requests_path(id: @project.id, issue_iid: @issue.iid))
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```
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## Custom Validators
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In order to validate some parameters in the API request, we validate them
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before sending them further (say Gitaly). The following are the
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[custom validators](https://GitLab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/tree/master/lib/api/validations/validators),
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which we have added so far and how to use them. We also wrote a
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guide on how you can add a new custom validator.
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### Using custom validators
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- `FilePath`:
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GitLab supports various functionalities where we need to traverse a file path.
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The [`FilePath` validator](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators/file_path.rb)
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validates the parameter value for different cases. Mainly, it checks whether a
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path is relative and does it contain `../../` relative traversal using
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`File::Separator` or not, and whether the path is absolute, for example
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`/etc/passwd/`. By default, absolute paths are not allowed. However, you can optionally pass in an allowlist for allowed absolute paths in the following way:
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`requires :file_path, type: String, file_path: { allowlist: ['/foo/bar/', '/home/foo/', '/app/home'] }`
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- `Git SHA`:
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The [`Git SHA` validator](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators/git_sha.rb)
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checks whether the Git SHA parameter is a valid SHA.
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It checks by using the regex mentioned in [`commit.rb`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/commit/b9857d8b662a2dbbf54f46ecdcecb44702affe55#d1c10892daedb4d4dd3d4b12b6d071091eea83df_30_30) file.
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- `Absence`:
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The [`Absence` validator](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators/absence.rb)
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checks whether a particular parameter is absent in a given parameters hash.
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- `IntegerNoneAny`:
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The [`IntegerNoneAny` validator](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators/integer_none_any.rb)
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checks if the value of the given parameter is either an `Integer`, `None`, or `Any`.
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It allows only either of these mentioned values to move forward in the request.
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- `ArrayNoneAny`:
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The [`ArrayNoneAny` validator](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators/array_none_any.rb)
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checks if the value of the given parameter is either an `Array`, `None`, or `Any`.
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It allows only either of these mentioned values to move forward in the request.
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- `EmailOrEmailList`:
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The [`EmailOrEmailList` validator](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators/email_or_email_list.rb)
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checks if the value of a string or a list of strings contains only valid
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email addresses. It allows only lists with all valid email addresses to move forward in the request.
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### Adding a new custom validator
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Custom validators are a great way to validate parameters before sending
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them to platform for further processing. It saves some back-and-forth
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from the server to the platform if we identify invalid parameters at the beginning.
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If you need to add a custom validator, it would be added to
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it's own file in the [`validators`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/lib/api/validations/validators) directory.
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Since we use [Grape](https://github.com/ruby-grape/grape) to add our API
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we inherit from the `Grape::Validations::Base` class in our validator class.
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Now, all you have to do is define the `validate_param!` method which takes
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in two parameters: the `params` hash and the `param` name to validate.
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The body of the method does the hard work of validating the parameter value
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and returns appropriate error messages to the caller method.
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Lastly, we register the validator using the line below:
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```ruby
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Grape::Validations.register_validator(<validator name as symbol>, ::API::Helpers::CustomValidators::<YourCustomValidatorClassName>)
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```
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Once you add the validator, make sure you add the `rspec`s for it into
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it's own file in the [`validators`](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/blob/master/spec/lib/api/validations/validators) directory.
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## Internal API
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The [internal API](internal_api.md) is documented for internal use. Please keep it up to date so we know what endpoints
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different components are making use of.
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## Avoiding N+1 problems
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In order to avoid N+1 problems that are common when returning collections
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of records in an API endpoint, we should use eager loading.
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A standard way to do this within the API is for models to implement a
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scope called `with_api_entity_associations` that preloads the
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associations and data returned in the API. An example of this scope can
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be seen in
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[the `Issue` model](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/2fedc47b97837ea08c3016cf2fb773a0300a4a25/app%2Fmodels%2Fissue.rb#L62).
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In situations where the same model has multiple entities in the API
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(for instance, `UserBasic`, `User` and `UserPublic`) you should use your
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discretion with applying this scope. It may be that you optimize for the
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most basic entity, with successive entities building upon that scope.
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The `with_api_entity_associations` scope also [automatically preloads
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data](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/19f74903240e209736c7668132e6a5a735954e7c/app%2Fmodels%2Ftodo.rb#L34)
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for `Todo` _targets_ when returned in the [to-dos API](../api/todos.md).
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For more context and discussion about preloading see
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[this merge request](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-foss/-/merge_requests/25711)
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which introduced the scope.
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### Verifying with tests
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When an API endpoint returns collections, always add a test to verify
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that the API endpoint does not have an N+1 problem, now and in the future.
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We can do this using [`ActiveRecord::QueryRecorder`](query_recorder.md).
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Example:
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```ruby
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def make_api_request
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get api('/foo', personal_access_token: pat)
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end
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it 'avoids N+1 queries', :request_store do
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# Firstly, record how many PostgreSQL queries the endpoint will make
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# when it returns a single record
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create_record
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control = ActiveRecord::QueryRecorder.new { make_api_request }
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# Now create a second record and ensure that the API does not execute
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# any more queries than before
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create_record
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expect { make_api_request }.not_to exceed_query_limit(control)
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end
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```
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## Testing
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When writing tests for new API endpoints, consider using a schema [fixture](testing_guide/best_practices.md#fixtures) located in `/spec/fixtures/api/schemas`. You can `expect` a response to match a given schema:
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```ruby
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expect(response).to match_response_schema('merge_requests')
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```
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Also see [verifying N+1 performance](#verifying-with-tests) in tests.
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## Include a changelog entry
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All client-facing changes **must** include a [changelog entry](changelog.md).
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This does not include internal APIs.
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