Design and Build Great Web APIs

Getting Started

We started the book by visiting some important foundational concepts that can help you make sense of the way web APIs look and feel, along with how you can use current technology to create them. In Chapter 1, ​Getting Started with API First​, we saw that APIs are meant to solve real business problems. Creating APIs just to say, “We have APIs,” isn’t enough. It’s important, as Kas Thomas says, to determine what your users “expect to be able to do with APIs.”

We also looked at the basic technology behind web APIs in Chapter 2, ​Understanding HTTP, REST, and APIs​. The HTTP protocol defines how clients and servers communicate on the wire. The common practice of the web, as outlined by Tim Berners-Lee and others, sets the tone for ...