The Design of Web APIs, Second Edition

Learn how to design web APIs that are a delight to use and maintain.

Thousands of developers have followed renowned API expert Arnaud Lauret’s guidance to create APIs that are flexible, secure, and easily integrated. This new edition of the bestselling The Design of Web APIs covers the latest updates to the OpenAPI standard, teaches you to streamline and standardize API design decisions with rationale and automation, and gives you insights you can apply to other API styles, such as gRPC. You’ll quickly see how a well-designed and properly-documented API gives your users autonomy—and saves you from constant explanations and hand-holding.

This fully revised second edition of The Design of Web APIs teaches you the principles and techniques you need to design easy-to-consume public and private web APIs. In it, you’ll learn how to:

• Analyze requirements to identify API capabilities for versatile, reusable designs
• Create HTTP-based REST APIs with CRUD, batch/bulk, or long operations
• Design interoperable, user-friendly APIs with seamless operations and data flow
• Ensure secure, efficient APIs while overcoming limitations and constraints
• Modify APIs without breaking compatibility, evaluating consequences carefully
• Future-proof your APIs and choose effective versioning strategies
• Document REST APIs using OpenAPI and JSON Schema for seamless implementation
• Streamline and standardize API design decisions with rationale and automation

The Design of Web APIs, Second Edition teaches vital skills for gathering requirements, balancing business and technical goals and constraints, and adopting a consumer-first mindset. Each chapter is packed full of hands-on examples, including designing an Online Shopping API and user-friendly banking operations, and over seventy exercises to help your new skills stick. Plus, you’ll explore paradigms applicable beyond REST APIs, and fully describe and document your APIs with OpenAPI and JSON Schema. Your web APIs will soon be easier to consume and your clients—internal and external—will be happier than ever!

About the technology

Web APIs open up your software to developers, exposing features, and capabilities to other programs. Well-designed web APIs are a joy. The bad ones are a nightmare, with endless impact on system performance, developer productivity, and end-user experience. This book shows you how to design APIs your fellow developers will love to use.

About the book

The Design of Web APIs, Second Edition teaches you to design efficient and adaptable REST APIs. This revised and rewritten second edition contains the latest updates to the OpenAPI standard, along with insights you can apply to other API styles such as GraphQL. Learn vital skills for gathering requirements, creating easy-to-consume public and private web APIs, and handling non-backward compatible modifications and versioning.

What's inside

• Design reusable, user-friendly and interoperable APIs
• Document your APIs with OpenAPI and JSON Schema
• Create secure and efficient APIs by design
• Streamline and standardize API design decisions

About the reader

Written for developers with experience building and consuming APIs.

About the author

Arnaud Lauret runs the API Handyman blog and is a frequent speaker at API conferences. He currently works as an API Industry Researcher at Postman.

Table of Contents

1 What is API design?
Part 1
2 Identifying API capabilities
3 Observing operations from the REST angle
4 Representing operations with HTTP
5 Modeling data
6 Describing HTTP operations with OpenAPI
7 Describing data with JSON Schema in OpenAPI
Part 2
8 Designing user-friendly, interoperable data
9 Designing user-friendly, interoperable operations
10 Designing user-friendly, interoperable operation flows
11 Designing user-friendly, interoperable APIs
Part 3
12 Designing a secure API
13 Designing an efficient API
14 Adapting the API design to the context
15 Modifying an API
Part 4
16 Facilitating API design decision-making
17 Optimizing an OpenAPI document
18 Automating API design guidelines
19 Enriching API design artifacts
A Solutions to the exercises

Get a free eBook (PDF or ePub) from Manning as well as access to the online liveBook format (and its AI assistant that will answer your questions in any language) when you purchase the print book.