RESTful API - Best Practices
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Presented by Nikola Vasilev on SkopjeTechMeetup 7. Representational state transfer (REST) can be thought of as the language of the Internet. Now with cloud usage on the rise, REST is a logical choice for building APIs that allow end users to connect and interact with cloud services. This talk will deliver more insight into the challenges on building and maintaining good and clean RESTful APIs.
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RESTful API - Best Practices
- 1. Tricode BV De Schutterij 12 -18 3905 PL Veenendaal The Netherlands tel: 0318 - 559210 fax: 0318 - 650909 www.tricode.nl info@tricode.nl Best Practices on Building RESTful API Nikola Vasilev Thursday, 1st of December 2016
- 2. Agenda • Introduction • Data Design and Abstraction • Verbs • Endpoints • Request • Response • Demo • Security • Documentation • References 2
- 4. Introduction • What is REST? • What is a RESTful API? 4
- 5. Introduction • Good RESTful API design is hard! • Language Agnostic Approach 5
- 6. Data Design and Abstraction • API First Development • Attaching an API to an existing project • Don’t expose the whole functionality via API 6
- 7. Verbs • GET (SELECT): Retrieve a specific Resource from the Server, or a listing of Resources. • POST (CREATE): Create a new Resource on the Server. • PUT (UPDATE): Update a Resource on the Server, providing the entire Resource. • PATCH (UPDATE): Update a Resource on the Server, providing only changed attributes. • DELETE (DELETE): Remove a Resource from the Server. 7
- 8. API Root URL • The root location of your API is important. • The API Root URL needs to be as simple as possible: • Provide a list of all endpoints on the root url. • Simple endpoints: – https://api.github.com/ – https://graph.facebook.com – https://api.example.com/v1 – https://yourproduct.com/api/v2 8
- 9. Endpoints • Use plural nouns: – https://api.example.com/v1/employees – https://api.example.com/v1/departments – https://api.example.com/v1/employees • Use uniform endpoint for each functionality • Don’t use verbs: – https://api.example.com/v1/add_employee – https://api.example.com/v1/edit_employee – https://api.example.com/v1/delete_employee 9
- 10. Endpoints (2) • GET /employees: List all Employees (ID and Name, not too much detail) • POST /employees: Create a new Employee • GET /employees/EID: Retrieve an entire Employee object • PUT /employees/EID: Update an Employee (entire object) • PATCH /employees/EID: Update an Employee (partial object) • DELETE /employees/EID: Delete an Employee 10
- 11. Response • GET /employees: Return a listing (array) of Employees • GET /employees/EID: Return an individual Employee • POST /employees: Return the newly created Employee • PUT /employees/EID: Return the complete Employee • PATCH /employees/EID: Return the complete Employee • DELETE /employees/EID: Return an empty document
- 12. Status Codes • 200 OK – [GET/PUT/PATCH] The Consumer requested data from the Server, and the Server found it for them (Idempotent) • 201 CREATED – [POST] The Consumer gave the Server data, and the Server created a resource • 204 NO CONTENT – [DELETE] The Consumer asked the Server to delete a Resource, and the Server deleted it • 400 BAD REQUEST – [POST/PUT/PATCH] The Consumer gave bad data to the Server, and the Server did nothing with it (Idempotent) • 404 NOT FOUND – [GET/PUT/PATCH/DELETE] The Consumer referenced a nonexistent Resource or Collection, and the Server did nothing (Idempotent) • 500 INTERNAL SERVER ERROR – [*] The Server encountered an error, and the Consumer has no knowledge if the request was successful
- 13. Content Type • JSON { "id": 12, "firstName": "John", "lastName": "Doe", "dateOfBirth": "1987-12-26", } • XML <?xml version="1.0 encoding="UTF-8"?> <employee> <id>12</id> <firstName>John</fristName> <lastName>Doe</lastName> <dateOfBirth>1987-12-28</dateOfBirth> </employee>
- 14. It’s Time For
- 15. Versioning • No matter how the API has been built. It will be change by time. • A good mechanism for versioning the API should be introduced. • The old version for the existing customers needs to be kept. • The new customers will implement the new version. • Introduce deprecation notice of your api – https://api.yourdomain.com/v1 – https://api.yourdomaincom/v2 15
- 16. Authentication • Secure your API • Build a customer token and use Basic Authorization over SSL • OAuth2
- 17. Documentation • No Documentation? - No one will know how to use your API. • Make the documentation available publicly (Google needs to know about it) • Document each endpoint, with each action, every response possible. • Build developer API console if possible.
- 18. References • Blog: https://codeplanet.io/principles-good-restful-api-design/ • Ebook: https://github.com/tlhunter/consumer-centric-api-design • Hardcopy: https://www.amazon.com/Consumer-Centric-API-Design- Thomas-Hunter/dp/136498900X/