Designing API for mobile apps (MobileWarsaw 19.01.2015)

1. DesigningmobileAPI
WojtekErbetowski
MobileWarsaw #21, 19.01.2015
t: @erbetowski

2. Aboutme?
Youallknowmealready,right?

3. Whynotsimply'designanAPI'?

4. GoodmobileAPI
≠
GoodAPI

6. REST&HATEOAS

7. GET /users/123
{
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"links": [
{
"rel": "self",
"href": "/users/123"
},
{
"rel": "account",
"href": "/accounts/987"
},
{
"rel": "address",
"href": "/addresses/555"
}
]
}

8. GET /addresses/555
{
"street": "Sesame",
"no": 25,
"zipCode": "12-321",
"state": "NY",
"country": "US"
}

9. HATEOASisgreat!

10. there'sathingcalledlatency

11. Latency

12. Latency

13. Itcangetcrazy

14. Mergingresponses

15. GET /user/123
{
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"country": "US"
}

16. Andifitain'tyours?

17. ExpansionFTW!

18. GET /users/123?
fields=[name,age,address[country]]
{
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"country": "US"
}

19. butmostofall

20. CONNECTION: KEEP-ALIVE

21. Docs

23. THROUGHPUT

25. Doyougetonlywhatyouneed?

26. {
"person": {
"id": 12345,
"firstName": "John",
"lastName": "Doe",
"age": 25,
"phones": {
"home": "800-123-4567",
"work": "888-555-0000",
"cell": "877-123-1234"
},
"email": [
"jd@example.com",
"jd@example.org"
],
"dateOfBirth": "1980-01-02T00:00:00.000Z",
"registered": true,
"emergencyContacts": [
{
"name": "",
"phone": "",
"email": "",
"relationship": "spouse|parent|child|other"
}
],
"address": {
"street": "Sesame",
"no": 25,
"zipCode": "12-321",
"state": "NY",
"country": "US"
}
}
}

27. {
"firstName": "John",
"lastName": "Doe",
"age": 25,
"country": "US"
}

28. Andifitain'tyours?

29. ExpansionFTW!

30. GET /users/123?
fields=[name,age,address[country]]
{
"name": "John Doe",
"age": 25,
"country": "US"
}

31. DATACOMPRESSION

32. {
"people": [
{
"firstName": "Jason",
"lastName": "Page",
"username": "jasonp",
"isMale": true,
"phone": "142-808-3743",
"nid": "12252671714"
...

33. Full
222910 bytes
GZipped
32128 bytes (14%)

34. Domaincomplexity

35. Usuallyautomatedtestingsucks
(onmobile)

36. SoifUIdiffersfrom
DATAMODEL

37. ...letthebackendguysworry

38. POST /relation
{
"type": "follower",
"from": 123,
"to": 456
}

39. POST /follow/456

40. HTTPCache

41. Expires: Sat, 21 Feb 2015 05:00 GMT
iOS(AFNetworking+NSURLCache)
Android(Retrofit+OkHttp+HttpResponseCache)

42. GET /users?page=1
[
"Arthur",
"Bob",
"Celine",
"Daniel",
"Eve",
"Fred",
"George"
]

43. GET /users?since=185328145127

44. {
"items": [
...
],
"next": "/users?since=185328145127"
}

45. Casestudy

46. Endpointsoverall
from36to20

47. Endpointsusage
(fullapplicationflow)
from86to20

48. 96%datasizereduction
(84%withoutGZIP)

49. Intheend
it'sallaboutusability

50. Starring

51. Akamai
StateoftheInternet
http://www.akamai.com/
stateo!heinternet/

52. Swagger
http://swagger.io/

53. Applause
(FormeruTest)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/utest/id411486493

54. Anythoughts?