A Practical Approach to API Design
A Practical Approach to API Design
From Principles to Practice
About the Book
If you read the tech press, everyone knows they need an API but most aren't really sure what it is. They treat it as another checkbox like "Web 2.0" was a few years ago or a mobile app was most recently. In fact, there's an entire "API-first" movement in development circles that most people don't understand or even realize why. In this book, we'll start by discussing the what an API is, why you might need one, and follow up with the how to build one.
With addition of our Appendix on API Design Patterns and numerous other design tips, this book is complete. Regardless, we're always open to additional sections, concepts, and questions so don't hesitate to drop us a note. Further, when you find something interesting, let us know. If you think we’re wrong, say so. If you think we’re right, tell your friends. If you want us to teach your team more and deeper concepts, please let us know.
About the Authors
Packages
The Book
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Team Package
This is a 5-book team package of A Practical Approach to API Design.
PDF
EPUB
MOBI
WEB
English
Bundles that include this book
Table of Contents
- Welcome
- Changelog
-
Chapter 1 - APIs: An Introduction
- What is an API
- Why you should have an API
-
Chapter 2 - Principles of Pragmatic API Design
- API or SOA?
- API and SOA: Extend and Accelerate
- REST vs. SOAP
- APIs for Existing Applications
-
Chapter 3 - Beyond CRUD
- Building APIs for Business Workflows
- Affordances
- Why you should trust others’ APIs
-
Chapter 4 - The API Modeling Process
- Summary of the Steps
- Step 1: Identify the Participants
- Step 2: Identify the Activities
- Step 3: Break Each Activity Into Steps
- Step 4: Create and Group API Methods
- Step 5: Validate the API By Testing
- Common Questions About API Modeling
- Next Step: Design
-
Chapter 5 - The Principles of HTTP and REST
- HTTP Core Concepts
- Web APIs and the Richardson Maturity Model
- Back to Basics: The 6 REST Constraints
- The Next Steps
-
Chapter 6 - From Modeling to RESTful Design
- Building Your Resource Taxonomy
- Defining Resource Lifecycles
- Mapping Response Codes For Success and Failure
- Expanding Resources Through Hypermedia Linking
- Common Questions About API Design
- Next steps
-
Chapter 7 - Message Formats
- Hypermedia Specifications
- Selecting a Data Storage Strategy
-
Chapter 8 - Documenting Your API
- The Hidden Value of API Documentation
- API Definition Formats
- Beyond API Reference Documentation
-
Chapter 9 - Prototyping Your API
- Static Prototyping
- Building a Working Prototype
-
Chapter 10 - API Product Management
- The API-First Organization
- Front-End, Back-End, and Full Stack Developers
- Partitioning API Teams
- Accelerating API Integration
-
Chapter 11 - Authentication & Authorization
- Authentication
- Authorization
-
Appendix A - API Design Patterns
- Adjectives
- API Security
- Bulk and Batch
- Caching
- Deleting Resources
- Error Handling
- Extended Resource Lifecycle
- Functional Endpoints
- Idempotency
- Pagination
- Sitemap
- Singleton Resources
- Transactional Resources
- Versioning
- Zoom/Embed
-
Appendix B - Additional Resources
- Books
- News & Information
- White Papers & Industry Reports
The Leanpub 60-day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
See full terms
Do Well. Do Good.
Authors have earned$11,595,069writing, publishing and selling on Leanpub, earning 80% royalties while saving up to 25 million pounds of CO2 and up to 46,000 trees.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers), EPUB (for phones and tablets) and MOBI (for Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
Top Books
- #1
C++20 - The Complete Guide
Nicolai M. JosuttisAll new language and library features of C++20 (for those who know previous C++ versions).
The book presents all new language and library features of C++20. Learn how this impacts day-to-day programming, to benefit in practice, to combine new features, and to avoid all new traps.
Buy early, pay less, free updates.
Other books:
- #2
Jetpack Compose internals
Jorge CastilloJetpack Compose is the future of Android UI. Master how it works internally and become a more efficient developer with it. You'll also find it valuable if you are not an Android dev. This book provides all the details to understand how the Compose compiler & runtime work, and how to create a client library using them.
- #3
Ansible for DevOps
Jeff GeerlingAnsible is a simple, but powerful, server and configuration management tool. Learn to use Ansible effectively, whether you manage one server—or thousands.
- #4
SignalR on .NET 6 - the Complete Guide
Fiodar SazanavetsLearn everything there is to learn about SignalR and how to integrate it with the latest .NET 6 and C# 10 features. Learn how to connect any type of client to SignalR, including plain WebSocket client. Learn how to build interactive applications that can communicate with each other in real time without making excessive calls.
- #5
R Programming for Data Science
Roger D. PengThis book brings the fundamentals of R programming to you, using the same material developed as part of the industry-leading Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization. The skills taught in this book will lay the foundation for you to begin your journey learning data science. Printed copies of this book are available through Lulu.
- #6
OpenIntro Statistics
David Diez, Christopher Barr, Mine Cetinkaya-Rundel, and OpenIntroA complete foundation for Statistics, also serving as a foundation for Data Science.
Leanpub revenue supports OpenIntro (US-based nonprofit) so we can provide free desk copies to teachers interested in using OpenIntro Statistics in the classroom and expand the project to support free textbooks in other subjects.
More resources: openintro.org.
- #7
Functional event-driven architecture: Powered by Scala 3
Gabriel VolpeExplore the event-driven architecture (EDA) in a purely functional way, mainly powered by Fs2 streams in Scala 3!
Leverage your functional programming skills by designing and writing stateless microservices that scale, powered by stateful message brokers.
- #8
The easiest way to learn design patterns
Fiodar SazanavetsLearn design patterns in the easiest way possible. You will no longer have to brute-force your way through each one of them while trying to figure out how it works. The book provides a unique methodology that will make your understanding of design patterns stick. It can also be used as a reference book where you can find design patterns in seconds.
- #9
CCIE Service Provider Version 4 Written and Lab Exam Comprehensive Guide
Nicholas RussoThe service provider landscape has changed rapidly over the past several years. Networking vendors are continuing to propose new standards, techniques, and procedures for overcoming new challenges while concurrently reducing costs and delivering new services. Cisco has recently updated the CCIE Service Provider track to reflect these changes; this book represents the author's personal journey in achieving that certification.
- #10
Cronache di Domain-Driven Design
Francesco Strazzullo, Matteo Baglini, Gianluca Padovani, Emanuele DelBono, Marco Consolaro, Alessandro Colla, Uberto Barbini, Alberto Acerbis, Julie Camosseto, DDD Open, and Alberto BrandoliniCronache di Domain-Driven Design: un libro corale in italiano fatto di storie indipendenti tra loro, che sono il risultato dell’applicazione di Domain-Driven Design su progetti reali.
Top Bundles
- #1
Software Architecture for Developers: Volumes 1 & 2 - Technical leadership and communication
2 Books
"Software Architecture for Developers" is a practical and pragmatic guide to modern, lightweight software architecture, specifically aimed at developers. You'll learn:The essence of software architecture.Why the software architecture role should include coding, coaching and collaboration.The things that you really need to think about before... - #2
Practical FP in Scala + Functional event-driven architecture
2 Books
Practical FP in Scala (A hands-on approach) & Functional event-driven architecture, aka FEDA, (Powered by Scala 3), together as a bundle! The content of PFP in Scala is a requirement to understand FEDA so why not take advantage of this bundle!? - #3
All the Books of The Medical Futurist
6 Books
We put together the most popular books from The Medical Futurist to provide a clear picture about the major trends shaping the future of medicine and healthcare. Digital health technologies, artificial intelligence, the future of 20 medical specialties, big pharma, data privacy, digital health investments and how technology giants such as Amazon... - #4
CCIE Service Provider Ultimate Study Bundle
2 Books
Piotr Jablonski, Lukasz Bromirski, and Nick Russo have joined forces to deliver the only CCIE Service Provider training resource you'll ever need. This bundle contains a detailed and challenging collection of workbook labs, plus an extensively detailed technical reference guide. All of us have earned the CCIE Service Provider certification... - #6
Pattern-Oriented Memory Forensics and Malware Detection
2 Books
This training bundle for security engineers and researchers, malware and memory forensics analysts includes two accelerated training courses for Windows memory dump analysis using WinDbg. It is also useful for technical support and escalation engineers who analyze memory dumps from complex software environments and need to check for possible... - #7
Modern C++ Collection
3 Books
Get All about Modern C++C++ Standard Library, including C++20Concurrency with Modern C++, including C++20C++20Each book has about 200 complete code examples. Updates are included. When I update one of the books, you immediately get the updated bundle. You can expect significant updates to each new C++ standard (C++23, C++26, .. ) and also... - #9
Retromat eBook Bundle for Agile Retrospectives
2 Books
If you facilitate retrospectives this bundle is for you: "Plans for Retrospectives" helps beginners learn the lay of the land with tried-and-true plans. Once you know your way around, "Run great agile retrospectives" contains all 135+ activities in Retromat for you to mix and match.
