The Design of Web APIs

Web APIs are everywhere, giving developers an efficient way to interact with applications, services, and data. Well-designed APIs are a joy to use; poorly-designed APIs are cumbersome, confusing, and frustrating. The Design of EverydayAPIs is a practical, example packed guide to crafting extraordinary web APIs. Author Arnaud Lauret demonstrates fantastic design principles and techniques you can apply to both public and private web APIs.

The Design of Everyday APIs introduces you to the challenging and creative world of API design. In this experience-driven guide, you'll learn to think like an API designer, embracing effective practices for requirements gathering, blending business and technical goals, and adopting a consumer-first mindset. You'll master the lifecycle of web API design, including the all-important secure-by-design approach. This book teaches principles that can be applied in any style of API. Most examples are illustrated using REST and the OpenAPI specification.

Written for developers with minimal experience building and consuming APIs.

Key Features

• Characteristics of a well-designed API
• Explore the full API design lifecycle
• Designing user-oriented APIs
• Secure APIs by design
• Evolving existing APIs
• Validating your API designs

Arnaud Lauret is a software architect with 15 years of experience in the banking industry. He has spent a decade using, designing, and building APIs. He’s known on the web as the API Handyman (http://apihandyman.io) and is the creator the API Stylebook (http://apistylebook.com), a collection of resources for API designers.