Deprecating APIs
API deprecation comes in two flavors: internal and external. Internal APIs are APIs used by components that are fully controlled by you and your team or organization. You can be sure that all API users will upgrade to the new API within a short time. External APIs are used by users or services outside your direct sphere of influence. There are a few gray-area situations where you work for a huge organization (think Google), and even internal APIs may need to be treated as external APIs. If you're lucky, all your external APIs are used by self-updating applications or through a web interface which you control. In those cases, the API is practically hidden, and you don't even need to publish it.
If you have a lot of users (or ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.
Read now
Unlock full access