API Concepts
Internal
Overview
At its core, an AP*I is a contract that specifies sending requests and receiving responses. The API is all about the data.
A REST API is made up of resources and methods.
REST and Hypermedia Concepts
API
REST API
Websocket API
OpenAPI Operation Declaration and Implementation Examples
API Design
API Design or API Modeling.
API Contract.
TO PROCESS:
- Best Practices in API Design: https://swagger.io/resources/articles/best-practices-in-api-design/
- Building and Enforcing API Standards at Scale with Swagger https://smartbear.com/resources/webinars/building-api-standards/
- Will Your API Design Process Scale? https://swagger.io/blog/api-design/will-your-api-design-process-scale/
Top-Down Approach vs. Bottom-Up Approach
The top-down API design and development approach is also known as "schema-first" or "definition-driven" approach.
TO PROCESS:
- https://howtodoinjava.com/swagger2/code-generation-for-rest-api/
- https://www.blazemeter.com/blog/five-reasons-you-should-use-openapi-swagger-for-your-apis
API Development
One of the artifacts of API development could be a client SDK. Tools like Swagger Codegen provide the means to generate SDK right from the API definition.
TO PROCESS:
- How to Build an API from the Ground Up: https://swagger.io/resources/articles/how-to-build-an-api-from-the-ground-up/
- Definition-Driven API development https://swagger.io/resources/webinars/definition-driven-api-development-how-oas-swagger/
- Why You Should Create an API Definition: https://swagger.io/blog/api-development/why-you-should-create-an-api-definition/
API Documentation
Documentation can be auto-generated from an API definition, or can be generated from an existing API at runtime (see Swagger Inflector, Swagger Inspector).
TO PROCESS:
- https://www.infoq.com/presentations/doc-restful-api
- Best Practices in API Documentation https://swagger.io/resources/articles/best-practices-in-api-documentation/
- Documenting Your Existing APIs: API Documentation Made Easy with OpenAPI & Swagger https://swagger.io/resources/articles/documenting-apis-with-swagger/
- API Documentation with the OpenAPI Specification & Swagger Tools https://smartbear.com/resources/webinars/api-documentation-openapi-swagger/
API Testing
TO PROCESS:
API Mocking and Virtualization
API development can become cumbersome as the number of dependencies on internal and external services grows. A technique to deal with that is to mock API dependencies, and interact with them before the actual service is built.
TO PROCESS:
API Governance
TO PROCESS:
API Monitoring
TO PROCESS:
OpenAPI
API Handler
The handler and the business logic should be separated, even though the primary purpose of the application is to handle API requests.
The API handler does to access the database directly, the access is intermediated by the business logic layer.