Book details API design best practices
APIs are necessarily a part of the whole when it comes to software systems. While each API has responsibilities and capabilities, it becomes part of the fabric that binds applications, databases, cloud services and more.
As such, API design is different than routine application design, said author and former API architect Mike Amundsen. It requires knowledge of various API-specific protocols and high-level software planning, and the ability to recognize common traps and assumptions that bring the process to a screeching halt.
Amundsen created the book Design and Build Great Web APIs as an instructive guide to the API lifecycle, including how they are designed, the specifics of builds and releases, and introductions to relevant tools. Software teams should focus on the diverse nature of APIs, good development practices and the traps that too many projects fall into.
The many sides of a single API
An API handles messaging between remote and disparate systems. Protocols standardize the way APIs request and receive data from one another. For instance, REST APIs, commonly found in web interfaces, use HTTP requests to get and consume data from other programs. But REST is just one of many protocols, such as SOAP, JSON-RPC and XML-RPC.