The document discusses building valuable RESTful APIs. It covers defining value through business models like freemium and advertising. Best practices for API design include using HTTP verbs, response codes, and hypermedia controls. Resources should be grouped and versioning is important. Authentication, pagination, and documentation are also discussed. The goal is to build APIs that are easy to use and provide value to both businesses and developers.
16. Unrealizedpotential
“...API businesses...are implementing only a few
strategies...this could indicate signs of money being left
on the table as business’ [sic] are not taking full
advantage of the growth that comes from using all of the
best practices in API design and delivery.”
Mark Boyd, “Real World API Business Models That Worked”, November 2014
http://www.programmableweb.com/news/real-world-api-business-models-worked/analysis/2014/11/03
21. “For consumers, a bad API means a longer
development cycle and a higher defect
rate; and in some cases, even a skills
problem in the team -- a dependency on the
one person that mastered the black art of
calling the API correctly.”
Peter Hendriks, Infosupport, September 2013
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/feature/Digging-into-quality-API-best-practices-problems-and-advice
30. Level1: Resources
“A resource is an object with a type,
associated data, relationships to other
resources, and a set of methods that operate
on it.”
Geert Jansen, “Thoughts on RESTful API Design”, November 2012
https://restful-api-design.readthedocs.org/en/latest/resources.html
45. WhatisHypertext?
“...the simultaneous presentation of
information and controls such that the
information becomes the affordance through
which the user (or automation) obtains
choices and selects actions.”
Roy T. Fielding, “REST APIs must by hypertext-driven”, October 2008
http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven
58. ResourcesThe Maturity Heuristic
http://www.crummy.com/writing/speaking/2008-QCon/act3.html
REST APIs must be hypertext-driven
http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven
Richardson Maturity Model
http://martinfowler.com/articles/richardsonMaturityModel.html
Thoughts on RESTful API Design
https://restful-api-design.readthedocs.org/en/latest/
API Best Practices Blog
https://blog.apigee.com/taglist/restful
ProgrammableWeb
http://www.programmableweb.com/