Return server response in xml, what to use?

Question

Yii

Goodnight.
Tell me how to solve the problem correctly?
There is a table in a DB where the data on flights is stored.
You need to make something like an api for the site.
The user should send a get request to the site in the form of a string like this:

http://example.ru/api/search?from=MOW&to=LED&date1=2012-09-25&date2=2012-10-01&adults=2&children=1&infants=1&cabin=Y&partner=avsl&password=pass

In the get parameters, the city of departure / arrival, the date of departure / arrival, the number of passengers, class (economy, business), carrier code and password are passed. In response, you should receive data in xml format + a link to this data, which will lead to the ticket ordering form.
I am reading articles for the second day and I can’t decide what to use to implement this task on YII2 ?
RESTful api or just yii2 class yii\web\Response .
I do not need authorization and verification of access rights, the data is public.
It only takes two actions:
1) Return the search result
2) Submit the order form
Now I have implemented this using yii\web\Responsebut I'm wondering if this is the correct approach or not?
What do you advise?

Answer 1

you need to understand that RestApi is not just a get request and an xml / json response, it is a specific specification for the Api structure. Ask yourself the question - does your site need to support this specification? if yes - implement RestApi based on Yii tools, if not - work with Response.

Answer 2

You can upgrade to yii 2.0.11. Two methods have been added to the controller: asJson() and asXml(). They serve to return data in JSON and XML format, respectively.