Saturday, April 27, 2024

What is API Design? Principles & Best Practices

api design patterns

RESTful API suits simple CRUD operations, while GraphQL handles complex queries. RPC API and SOAP API can be more efficient for specific functions but require more complexity. Hypermedia API, event-driven API, and message queue API cater to specific systems and applications but may need additional tooling and infrastructure. API design patterns are essential for creating reliable, scalable, and reusable code. This post explores the best practices and design principles for building APIs that are easy to use, maintain, and extend.

Best of 2023: Top 9 Microservices Design Patterns - Cloud Native Now

Best of 2023: Top 9 Microservices Design Patterns.

Posted: Wed, 03 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Long Running Operations

If an alternative design is equally clear and does notrequire an optional primitive, prefer that. If not using optional would addcomplexity or ambiguity, then use optional primitive fields. In general, API designers should useplain primitive types, such as int32, for simplicity and consistency. When designing an API method that handles payloads larger than 10MB, we shouldcarefully choose the right strategy for usability and future growth. For GoogleAPIs, we recommend to use either streaming or media upload/download to handlelarge payloads.

url: "/ajax/getProductOwnershipDetails?productId=1054"

To sum up, the diagram shows that RESTful APIs can support multiple data formats such as JSON, XML, etc., and can also use versioning techniques to manage changes to the API over time. This way, we can gradually phase out old endpoints instead of forcing everyone to move to the new API at the same time. The v1 endpoint can stay active for people who don’t want to change, while the v2, with its shiny new features, can serve those who are ready to upgrade.

GraphQL APIs

Therefore we're using a local JSON file that mimics our Database. But this logic can be transferred to other databases of course. Our job will require us to design and implement an API for that application. If you're not familiar with CrossFit, it's a fitness method and competitive sport that combines high-intensity workouts with elements from several sports (olympic weightlifting, gymnastics, and others).

In this case, OK is semanticallyequivalent to UNSPECIFIED in the context of the enum type. Listable collections should support pagination, even if results aretypically small. “Data on the outside”differs from “data on the inside”, to pick up P. JSON is a particularly popular data serialization and messageexchange format.

api design patterns

What kind of Experience do you want to share?

The @PathVariable annotation provided by Spring Boot helps us implement the URI template pattern in our code seamlessly. Communication between client and server should be stateless, which means that every client request contains all the information necessary for the server to process the request. So there is no global state thereby reducing the complexity of the server. RESTful APIs should use HTTP as a transport layer since the infrastructure, server, and client libraries for HTTP are widely available already. RESTful APIs should take advantage of HTTP methods, or verbs, such as GET, PUT, and POST. Naive or simplistic API design can follow all the guidelines above and still not support the use cases that developers will need.

We've looped the database response through our service to the controller. Let's start with the simplest one and return all workouts that are stored and start with implementing the corresponding method inside our Data Access Layer (src/database/Workout.js). To do that, we need a database and a collection of methods that actually handle the database interaction. Our database will be a simple JSON file that is pre-filled with some workouts already.

What are the 6 design patterns of REST API?

Best of 2023: 5 Microservices Design Patterns Every DevOps Team Should Know - DevOps.com

Best of 2023: 5 Microservices Design Patterns Every DevOps Team Should Know.

Posted: Tue, 02 Jan 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]

Different caching techniques, such as client-side caching with Cache-Control headers and server-side caching, can be deployed to maximize performance. To enhance the clarity and efficiency of the API structure, APIs include nested resources that reflect hierarchical objects. Your industry may have its own set of standards or conventions. Even if they aren’t as strict as banking regulations, it’s worth giving proper consideration to a pattern with which developers will already be familiar. These three approaches can be used together to support very specific queries. Understanding your use cases will help determine the complexity of your parameters.

REST API Best Practices

Another reason for that could be that we might change a service that is used by all other versions. So it would be a wise decision to move the services folder also into a specific version folder. The other folders like controllers or services still remain inside our src directory. That is okay for now because we are building a rather small API.

In this case, you specify an absolute expiry time for the cached version. Anything beyond the time specified is considered stale and must be updated with the origin server. There are many more HTTP status codes and methods to consider, but the above lists should get you well on your way for most APIs. To achieve this, a token bucket algorithm is used to store tokens that represent the number of requests a client can make.

Since the format outlines the ways an API can be called, it contains all the information a developer needs to integrate with the API. Plus, some API references don’t include essential details like error codes, so OpenAPI encourages accurate documentation. Further, you can generate new docs every time your API changes, so they’ll always be up-to-date. On the other hand, open banking APIs require their own treatment.

European standards are the most mature and have a set of design patterns based on those regulations. Returning data from local memory rather than sending a query for each new request can improve your app’s performance. GET requests are cacheable by default, however, POST requests require you to specify the cache requirements in the header. Caching, however, can lead to stale data on the client’s browser. Much as these methods provide the request context from client to server, HTTP status codes help describe the response in the reverse direction. For example, one common approach is to use OAuth 2.0 for authentication and authorization.

By versioning your API, you can ensure that clients are always using the correct version of the API, and can phase out older versions as needed. The Versioning design pattern is used to manage changes to an API over time. As APIs evolve, new features may be added, existing features may be modified, and old features may be removed. Clients of the API may also need to be updated to use the new or modified features.

The definition of a RESTful API means you don’t need to use the HTTP protocol. However, the two developed alongside each other, and almost every RESTful API code relies upon HTTP. For that reason, it makes sense to structure your API around the built-in methods and status codes that are already well-defined in HTTP. Here’s how you can design, develop, and create an HTTP REST API. Good API documentation should also be easy to navigate, with a clear table of contents and a search function.

Basically there's nothing wrong with that approach – but this can lead to misunderstandings. After that we'll be extending the API with each best practice. We won't overcomplicate things, and we'll build a simple but organized project structure. During that time, I've come across good and bad practices and have experienced nasty situations when consuming and building API's.

Every enum definition must start with a 0 valued entry, which shall beused when an enum value is not explicitly specified. Monetize your AI model by transforming it into an AI API, creating new revenue streams by integrating your AI capabilities into other applications. Start enhancing your API journey today by exploring Moesif’s extensive guides on building APIs. For a hands-on experience with Moesif’s analytics and monetization tools, sign up for a free trial or chat with our team of API experts to learn how Moesif can supercharge your API projects.

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