Continuous API Management


Book Description

A lot of work is required to release an API, but the effort doesn’t always pay off. Overplanning before an API matures is a wasted investment, while underplanning can lead to disaster. This practical guide provides maturity models for individual APIs and multi-API landscapes to help you invest the right human and company resources for the right maturity level at the right time. How do you balance the desire for agility and speed with the need for robust and scalable operations? Four experts from the API Academy show software architects, program directors, and product owners how to maximize the value of their APIs by managing them as products through a continuous life cycle. Learn which API decisions you need to govern and how and where to do so Design, deploy, and manage APIs using an API-as-a-product (AaaP) approach Examine ten pillars that form the foundation of API product work Learn how the continuous improvement model governs changes throughout an API’s lifetime Explore the five stages of a complete API product life cycle Delve into team roles needed to design, build, and maintain your APIs Learn how to manage your API landscape—the set of APIs published by your organization




Building an API Product


Book Description

Unlock the power of APIs with expert guidance and techniques for successfully creating, testing, and maintaining products that align with customers and stand out in the market Key Features Understand the complete API product lifecycle, from planning to implementation, release, and maintenance Design and support API products that distinguish themselves on the market by meeting user needs Implement actionable techniques for developing, testing, and securing a successful API product Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook Book DescriptionThe exponential increase in the number of APIs is evidence of their widespread adoption by companies seeking to deliver value to users across diverse industries, making the art of building successful APIs an invaluable skill for anyone involved in product development. With this comprehensive guide, you’ll walk through the entire process of planning, designing, implementing, releasing, and maintaining successful API products. You’ll start by exploring all aspects of APIs, including their types, technologies, protocols, and lifecycle stages. Next, you’ll learn how to define an API strategy and identify business objectives, user personas, and jobs-to-be-done (JTBD). With these skills, you’ll delve into designing and validating API capabilities to create a machine-readable API definition. As you advance, the book helps you understand how to choose the right language and framework for securely releasing an API server and offers insights into analyzing API usage metrics, improving performance, and creating compelling documentation that users love. Finally, you’ll discover ways to support users, manage versions, and communicate changes or the retirement of an API. By the end of this API development book, you’ll have the confidence and skills to create API products that truly stand out in the market.What you will learn Master each stage of the API lifecycle Discover technologies and protocols employed in building an API product Understand the different API design definition and validation techniques Generate an API server from a machine-readable definition Understand how to set up and analyze API monitors Familiarize yourself with the different gateways for releasing an API Find out how to create an API portal that attracts users Gain insights into planning and communicating API retirement to users Who this book is for Building an API Product is a guide for product managers and software developers navigating the world of APIs to build programmable products. You don't have to be an experienced professional to learn from this book as long as you have basic knowledge of internet technologies and how users interact with a product.




Designing Web APIs


Book Description

Using a web API to provide services to application developers is one of the more satisfying endeavors that software engineers undertake. But building a popular API with a thriving developer ecosystem is also one of the most challenging. With this practical guide, developers, architects, and tech leads will learn how to navigate complex decisions for designing, scaling, marketing, and evolving interoperable APIs. Authors Brenda Jin, Saurabh Sahni, and Amir Shevat explain API design theory and provide hands-on exercises for building your web API and managing its operation in production. You’ll also learn how to build and maintain a following of app developers. This book includes expert advice, worksheets, checklists, and case studies from companies including Slack, Stripe, Facebook, Microsoft, Cloudinary, Oracle, and GitHub. Get an overview of request-response and event-driven API design paradigms Learn best practices for designing an API that meets the needs of your users Use a template to create an API design process Scale your web API to support a growing number of API calls and use cases Regularly adapt the API to reflect changes to your product or business Provide developer resources that include API documentation, samples, and tools




APIs: A Strategy Guide


Book Description

"Creating channels with application programming interfaces"--Cover.




Enterprise API Management


Book Description

A strategy and implementation guide for building, deploying, and managing APIs Key FeaturesComprehensive, end-to-end guide to business-driven enterprise APIsDistills years of experience with API and microservice strategiesProvides detailed guidance on implementing API-led architectures in any businessBook Description APIs are the cornerstone of modern, agile enterprise systems. They enable access to enterprise services from a wide variety of devices, act as a platform for innovation, and open completely new revenue streams. Enterprise API Management shows how to define the right architecture, implement the right patterns, and define the right organization model for business-driven APIs. Drawing on his experience of developing API and microservice strategies for some of the world's largest companies, Luis Weir explains how APIs deliver value across an enterprise. The book explores the architectural decisions, implementation patterns, and management practices for successful enterprise APIs, as well as providing clear, actionable advice on choosing and executing the right API strategy in your enterprise. With a relentless focus on creating business value, Luis Weir reveals an effective method for planning, building, and running business products and services with APIs. What you will learnCreate API strategies to deliver business valueMonetize APIs, promoting them through public marketplaces and directoriesDevelop API-led architectures, applying best practice architecture patternsChoose between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC-style API architecturesManage APIs and microservices through the complete life cycleDeploy APIs and business products, as well as Target Operating ModelsLead product-based organizations to embrace DevOps and focus on delivering business capabilitiesWho this book is for Architects, developers, and technology executives who want to deliver successful API strategies that bring business value.




RESTful API Design


Book Description

Looking for Best Practices for RESTful APIs? This book is for you! Why? Because this book is packed with practical experience on what works best for RESTful API Design. You want to design APIs like a Pro? Use API description languages to both design APIs and develop APIs efficiently. The book introduces the two most common API description languages RAML, OpenAPI, and Swagger. Your company cares about its customers? Learn API product management with a customer-centric design and development approach for APIs. Learn how to manage APIs as a product and how to follow an API-first approach. Build APIs your customers love! You want to manage the complete API lifecycle? An API development methodology is proposed to guide you through the lifecycle: API inception, API design, API development, API publication, API evolution, and maintenance. You want to build APIs right? This book shows best practices for REST design, such as the correct use of resources, URIs, representations, content types, data formats, parameters, HTTP status codes, and HTTP methods. Your APIs connect to legacy systems? The book shows best practices for connecting APIs to existing backend systems. Your APIs connect to a mesh of microservices? The book shows the principles for designing APIs for scalable, autonomous microservices. You expect lots of traffic on your API? The book shows you how to achieve high performance, availability and maintainability. You want to build APIs that last for decades? We study API versioning, API evolution, backward- and forward-compatibility and show API design patterns for versioning. The API-University Series is a modular series of books on API-related topics. Each book focuses on a particular API topic, so you can select the topics within APIs, which are relevant for you.




API Design Patterns


Book Description

"A concept-rich book on API design patterns. Deeply engrossing and fun to read." - Satej Sahu, Honeywell API Design Patterns lays out a set of design principles for building internal and public-facing APIs. In API Design Patterns you will learn: Guiding principles for API patterns Fundamentals of resource layout and naming Handling data types for any programming language Standard methods that ensure predictability Field masks for targeted partial updates Authentication and validation methods for secure APIs Collective operations for moving, managing, and deleting data Advanced patterns for special interactions and data transformations API Design Patterns reveals best practices for building stable, user-friendly APIs. These design patterns can be applied to solve common API problems and flexibly altered to fit specific needs. Hands-on examples and relevant cases illustrate patterns for API fundamentals, advanced functionalities, and uncommon scenarios. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the technology APIs are contracts that define how applications, services, and components communicate. API design patterns provide a shared set of best practices, specifications and standards that ensure APIs are reliable and simple for other developers. This book collects and explains the most important patterns from both the API design community and the experts at Google. About the book API Design Patterns lays out a set of principles for building internal and public-facing APIs. Google API expert JJ Geewax presents patterns that ensure your APIs are consistent, scalable, and flexible. You’ll improve the design of the most common APIs, plus discover techniques for tricky edge cases. Precise illustrations, relevant examples, and detailed scenarios make every pattern clear and easy to understand. What's inside Guiding principles for API patterns Fundamentals of resource layout and naming Advanced patterns for special interactions and data transformations A detailed case-study on building an API and adding features About the reader For developers building web and internal APIs in any language. About the author JJ Geewax is a software engineer at Google, focusing on Google Cloud Platform, API design, and real-time payment systems. He is also the author of Manning’s Google Cloud Platform in Action. Table of Contents PART 1 INTRODUCTION 1 Introduction to APIs 2 Introduction to API design patterns PART 2 DESIGN PRINCIPLES 3 Naming 4 Resource scope and hierarchy 5 Data types and defaults PART 3 FUNDAMENTALS 6 Resource identification 7 Standard methods 8 Partial updates and retrievals 9 Custom methods 10 Long-running operations 11 Rerunnable jobs PART 4 RESOURCE RELATIONSHIPS 12 Singleton sub-resources 13 Cross references 14 Association resources 15 Add and remove custom methods 16 Polymorphism PART 5 COLLECTIVE OPERATIONS 17 Copy and move 18 Batch operations 19 Criteria-based deletion 20 Anonymous writes 21 Pagination 22 Filtering 23 Importing and exporting PART 6 SAFETY AND SECURITY 24 Versioning and compatibility 25 Soft deletion 26 Request deduplication 27 Request validation 28 Resource revisions 29 Request retrial 30 Request authentication




Designing APIs with Swagger and OpenAPI


Book Description

Follow real-world API projects from concept to production, and learn hands-on how to describe and design APIs using OpenAPI. In Designing APIs with Swagger and OpenAPI you will learn how to: Understand OpenAPI syntax and structure Use Swagger and other tooling to create OpenAPI definitions Design authentication and authorization Turn an OpenAPI description into online documentation Automate processes and generating code Iterate an API design with user stories Build a frontend against a mock server Generate backend code with Swagger Codegen Versioning an API and dodging breaking changes Work with cross-functional teams Designing APIs with Swagger and OpenAPI is a comprehensive guide to designing and describing your first RESTful API using the most widely adopted standards. Following expert instruction from Swagger core contributor Josh Ponelat and API consultant Lukas Rosenstock, you’ll spend each chapter progressively expanding the kind of APIs you’ll want to build in the real world. You’ll utilize OpenAPI and Swagger to help automate your workflow, and free up your time to work on more exciting features. Learn the syntax and structure of OpenAPI definitions, create and iterate on an API design with common tools, and release your API to the public. About the technology Create web APIs that customers and developers will love! Using Swagger, a collection of tools for defining and documenting REST APIs, you will build safe, controlled access to your software. And because Swagger implements the vendor-neutral OpenAPI specification, you’ll be building to the same standards adopted by Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. About the book Designing APIs with Swagger and OpenAPI introduces a design-first approach. Written for developers new to API design, it follows the lifecycle of an API project from concept to production. You’ll explore the dos and don’ts of APIs through progressively complete examples. You’ll get hands-on experience designing APIs for specific business needs, using open source tools to generate documentation, and building developer-friendly components like mocks and client SDKs. What's inside OpenAPI syntax and structure Using Swagger to create OpenAPI definitions Automating processes and generating code Working with cross-functional teams About the reader For web developers. No prior knowledge of Swagger or OpenAPI required. About the author Josh Ponelat is the Swagger Open Source lead at SmartBear. Lukas Rosenstock is an independent software developer and API consultant.




API Architecture


Book Description

Looking for the big picture of building APIs? This book is for you! Building APIs that consumers love should certainly be the goal of any API initiative. However, it is easier said than done. It requires getting the architecture for your APIs right. This book equips you with both foundations and best practices for API architecture. This book is for you if you want to understand the big picture of API design and development, you want to define an API architecture, establish a platform for APIs or simply want to build APIs your consumers love. This book is NOT for you, if you are looking for a step-by step guide for building APIs, focusing on every detail of the correct application of REST principles. In this case I recommend the book "API Design" of the API-University Series. What is API architecture? Architecture spans the bigger picture of APIs and can be seen from several perspectives: API architecture may refer to the architecture of the complete solution consisting not only of the API itself, but also of an API client such as a mobile app and several other components. API solution architecture explains the components and their relations within the software solution. API architecture may refer to the technical architecture of the API platform. When building, running and exposing not only one, but several APIs, it becomes clear that certain building blocks of the API, runtime functionality and management functionality for the API need to be used over and over again. An API platform provides an infrastructure for developing, running and managing APIs. API architecture may refer to the architecture of the API portfolio. The API portfolio contains all APIs of the enterprise and needs to be managed like a product. API portfolio architecture analyzes the functionality of the API and organizes, manages and reuses the APIs. API architecture may refer to the design decisions for a particular API proxy. To document the design decisions, API description languages are used. We explain the use of API description languages (RAML and Swagger) on many examples. This book covers all of the above perspectives on API architecture. However, to become useful, the architecture needs to be put into practice. This is why this book covers an API methodology for design and development. An API methodology provides practical guidelines for putting API architecture into practice. It explains how to develop an API architecture into an API that consumers love. A lot of the information on APIs is available on the web. Most of it is published by vendors of API products. I am always a bit suspicious of technical information pushed by product vendors. This book is different. In this book, a product-independent view on API architecture is presented. The API-University Series is a modular series of books on API-related topics. Each book focuses on a particular API topic, so you can select the topics within APIs, which are relevant for you.




Business of APIs


Book Description

In recent years, API adoption has exploded among developers, for reasons that this book will examine. But the purpose of this book is not to discuss how to deliver an API but to rather how to scale the business side to meet this rising developer demand. Written by someone with an engineering and a business background, The Business of APIs also aims to bridge the technical and the business aspects of API development.This book serves to help people understand what APIs are, who uses them, and the different types of APIs that are available. As the title suggests, this is a business-oriented book. Nonetheless it does seek to educate users about what types of technologies go into popular Web APIs. The book also surveys the history of modern Web APIs and examines how they've been used successfully.If you are considering launching an API, this book should help you understand the common stumbling blocks that have been faced by many API owners -- then hopefully you can avoid them. The book will also identify common building blocks used by API owners, building blocks that should be fundamental for your API planning and development.The Business of APIs highlights what it takes to be successful in providing quality Web APIs and points to some of the innovative steps new businesses are taking with their APIs -- all in an effort to build vibrant API ecosystems and healthy businesses.