API Creation to interact with BitcoinJ node

[Was]

Hello All,

I am interested in creating an API to interact with a bitcoinj node to send and retrieve OP_RETURN transactions for the purpose of putting data into the blockchain.

The process I had in mind went something like this Insert text string, make string into variable(n),  convert variable to hex(x), make hex as a variable within API, push variable to BitcoinJ within OP_RETURN script.

and on the other end for interpretation: Pull txid from blockchain containing output script "OP_RETURN" with the data. convert (x) back to (n).. (HEX TO STRING) and display the original text string.

I assume the calls would be data.push and data.pull respectively.

If I want to interact with a BitcoinJ node, would the most convenient language to program the API in be Node.js?

also, How do I go about creating and issuing API Keys? 

I guess more questions to come, thanks for your help on this cool project Does anyone think this would be difficult?

[Was]

As a matter of fact,

Is BitcoinJ even the easiest, best way to do something like this, and if so, is Node.js still a viable way to implement the process I just described?

Is it possible to just use Bitcoin-cli to process the calls from the API assuming it's written in Node.js?