Book description
The Design of Web APIs is a practical, example-packed guide to crafting extraordinary web APIs. Author Arnaud Lauret demonstrates fantastic design principles and techniques you can apply to both public and private web APIs.
About the Technology
An API frees developers to integrate with an application without knowing its code-level details. Whether you’re using established standards like REST and OpenAPI or more recent approaches like GraphQL or gRPC, mastering API design is a superskill. It will make your web-facing services easier to consume and your clients—internal and external—happier.
About the Book
Drawing on author Arnaud Lauret's many years of API design experience, this book teaches you how to gather requirements, how to balance business and technical goals, and how to adopt a consumer-first mindset. It teaches effective practices using numerous interesting examples.
What's Inside
- Characteristics of a well-designed API
- User-oriented and real-world APIs
- Secure APIs by design
- Evolving, documenting, and reviewing API designs
About the Reader
Written for developers with minimal experience building and consuming APIs.
About the Author
A software architect with extensive experience in the banking industry, Arnaud Lauret has spent 10 years using, designing, and building APIs. He blogs under the name of API Handyman and has created the API Stylebook website.
Quotes
Assembles the fundamental building blocks of API design in an easy-to-access way, and walks you through the vast landscape in a friendly and comfortable manner.
- From the Foreword by Kin Lane, The API Evangelist
Answers nagging and complicated questions with a simple philosophy, but never tries to hide anything from you. A fantastic introduction to the field.
- Bridger Howell, SoFi.com
An excellent guidebook for establishing a path to RESTful APIs.
- Shawn Smith, Penn State University
Combines real-world examples with difficult abstract ideas.
- Shayn Cornwell, XeroOne Systems
Table of contents
- Cover
- Titlepage
- Copyright
- foreword
- preface
- acknowledgments
- about this book
- about the author
- about the cover illustration
-
Part 1: Fundamentals of API design
- Chapter 1: What is API design?
- Chapter 2: Designing an API for its users
- Chapter 3: Designing a programming interface
- Chapter 4: Describing an API with an API description format
-
Part 2: Usable API design
- Chapter 5: Designing a straightforward API
- Chapter 6 : Designing a predictable API
- Chapter 7: Designing a concise and well-organized API
-
Part 3: Contextual API design
- Chapter 8: Designing a secure API
-
Chapter 9: Evolving an API design
-
9.1 Designing API evolutions
- 9.1.1 Avoiding breaking changes in output data
- 9.1.2 Avoiding breaking changes to input data and parameters
- 9.1.3 Avoiding breaking changes in success and error feedback
- 9.1.4 Avoiding breaking changes to goals and flows
- 9.1.5 Avoiding security breaches and breaking changes
- 9.1.6 Being aware of the invisible interface contract
- 9.1.7 Introducing a breaking change is not always a problem
- 9.2 Versioning an API
- 9.3 Designing APIs with extensibility in mind
- Summary
-
9.1 Designing API evolutions
- Chapter 10: Designing a network-efficient API
- Chapter 11: Designing an API in context
- Chapter 12: Documenting an API
- Chapter 13: Growing APIs
- Index
- Lists of Figures, Tables and Listings
Product information
- Title: The Design of Web APIs
- Author(s):
- Release date: October 2019
- Publisher(s): Manning Publications
- ISBN: 9781617295102
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