PHP and MySQL RESTful API is a course in building RESTful APIs with PHP 8.5 and MySQL without a framework, from REST principles, routing and PDO to consistent JSON responses, Basic Auth and JWT authentication, and calling APIs with the Fetch API and Guzzle. It suits web developers, students and IT staff who already have some PHP and MySQL experience.
REST is a way of designing web services that treats data as resources reached through URLs, communicates statelessly and uses HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT and DELETE for their intended meaning, returning JSON that mobile apps, web pages and other systems can consume. Writing an API in PHP without a framework shows how every layer works, from handling the request and accessing the database to authentication, and that understanding carries over to any framework.
This course builds a RESTful API with PHP 8.5 and MySQL without a framework. It starts with REST and HTTP principles, then a hand-written front controller and router, database access with PDO, endpoints for articles and categories, and systematic validation and error responses. Learners secure the API with Basic Auth and JWT, build a single-page web front end that calls it, call external services with Guzzle, and finish with a workshop and deployment. (2 days, 6 hours per day, 12 hours in total, Intermediate level.)
Course Details
This course is the 2026 edition of PHP and MySQL RESTful API. It runs for 2 days, 6 hours per day (12 hours in total, 09:00-16:00), as lectures with labs and a workshop. Intermediate level. This edition uses PHP 8.5 and MySQL 9.7 LTS on Docker Compose instead of XAMPP, VirtualBox and Vagrant. It keeps the plain PHP approach without a framework and the article and category API project, and adds
a hand-written router, validation and standard error formats, CORS, API security guidance, OpenAPI documentation and deployment. Basic Auth, JWT, the single-page web front end and Guzzle are kept. The course focuses on APIs, unlike PHP OOP and MySQL, which focuses on OOP and design patterns; learners who want a framework can continue with RESTful API with Laravel. Learners take home a lab guide, source code for every lab and a Postman collection.
Section 1: Getting to Know REST and HTTP
Section 2: Lab: Setting Up the Tools
Section 3: A Hand-Written Front Controller and Router
Section 4: Lab: MySQL Access with PDO
Section 5: Lab: Article and Category Endpoints
Section 6: Validation and Consistent Errors
Section 7: Lab: Sign-Up and Basic Auth
Section 8: Lab: Authentication with JWT
Section 9: CORS and API Security
Section 10: Lab: A Single-Page Web Front End for the API
Section 11: Lab: Calling External APIs with Guzzle
Section 12: Workshop: The Article API with Documentation, Deployed
No public rounds are open right now. Join the waiting list and we will contact you first when the next round opens, or ask us on LINE. Or call 02-570-8449 or 088-807-9770
REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for web services that treats data as resources reached through URLs and communicates statelessly, so every request carries everything it needs and the server does not remember earlier requests. RESTful describes an API or service that genuinely follows REST, for example using GET, POST, PUT and DELETE for their intended meaning and replying with suitable HTTP status codes.
Start by designing the MySQL tables and defining endpoints by resource, such as /articles. Route every request through public/index.php and use a router to dispatch by HTTP method and path. Access the database with PDO and prepared statements, read input from php://input with json_decode, and reply with the Content-Type: application/json header, json_encode and the correct http_response_code. Then test with Postman.
Basic Auth sends the username and password, encoded in Base64, with every request in the Authorization header. Base64 is easy to decode, so it must always be used over HTTPS. With JWT the user logs in once and receives a token signed by the server, then sends the token instead of the password on later requests. The token can expire and carries data such as the user ID, so the server can check access without keeping a session.
It suits web developers who want to build web services for other systems, developers who want to understand how APIs work before using a framework, students, teachers, lecturers, IT staff and system administrators. You should be able to write PHP with a basic grasp of classes and objects, write SQL with some MySQL experience, and know basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
You will be able to design and write an API with PHP 8.5 and MySQL without a framework, including the router, PDO access and endpoints for sign-up, user checks and article and category management, with systematic validation and errors. You will secure it with Basic Auth and JWT, configure CORS, build a single-page front end that calls it, use Guzzle to call other APIs, document it with OpenAPI and deploy it. Participants receive a Certificate of Completion with its own number that can be verified online.
You use Docker Desktop to run PHP 8.5 and MySQL 9.7 LTS through Docker Compose, or a locally installed PHP, Composer to install packages such as firebase/php-jwt and Guzzle, Visual Studio Code with PHP extensions, Git, and Postman for testing the API. These are installed at the start of the course. This edition no longer uses XAMPP, VirtualBox or Vagrant.
Articles are published in Thai.
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