Patterns for API Design: Simplifying Integration with Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges

Chapter 7

Refine Message Design for Quality

This chapter covers seven patterns that address issues with API quality. Arguably, it would be hard to find any API designers and product owners who do not value qualities such as intuitive understandability, splendid performance, and seamless evolva-bility. That said, any quality improvement comes at a price—a literal cost such as extra development effort but also negative consequences such as an adverse impact on other qualities. This balancing act is caused by the fact that some of the desired qualities conflict with each other—just think about the almost classic performance versus security trade-offs.

We first establish why these issues are relevant in “Introduction to API Quality.” The next section ...