Learn how to design web APIs that are a delight to use, deploy, and maintain.

An Application Programming Interface, or API, defines how a program exposes its operations, features, and capabilities to other programs—and the kind of data it can send and receive from them. Well-designed APIs are a joy to use. Bad APIs are a nightmare, with endless impact on system performance, developer productivity, and your end-user experience.

This fully revised second edition of The Design of Web APIs teaches you the principles and techniques you need to design easy-to-consume public and private web APIs. In it, you’ll learn how to:

• Analyze requirements to identify API capabilities for versatile, reusable designs
• Create HTTP-based REST APIs with CRUD, batch/bulk, or long operations
• Design interoperable, user-friendly APIs with seamless operations and data flow
• Ensure secure, efficient APIs while overcoming limitations and constraints
• Modify APIs without breaking compatibility, evaluating consequences carefully
• Future-proof your APIs and choose effective versioning strategies
• Document REST APIs using OpenAPI and JSON Schema for seamless implementation
• Streamline and standardize API design decisions with rationale and automation

Thousands of developers have followed renowned API expert Arnaud Lauret’s expert guidance to create APIs that are flexible, secure, and easily integrated. This new edition of the bestselling The Design of Web APIs covers the latest updates to the OpenAPI standard, along with insights you can apply to other API styles, such as GraphQL. You’ll quickly see how a well-designed and properly-documented API gives your users autonomy—and saves you from constant explanations and hand-holding.

Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF and ePub formats from Manning Publications.

About the book

The Design of Web APIs, Second Edition teaches you reliable techniques for designing highly efficient and adaptable REST APIs. You’ll learn vital skills for gathering requirements, balancing business and technical goals, and adopting a consumer-first mindset. Each chapter is packed full of hands-on examples, including designing an Online Shopping API and user-friendly banking operations. You’ll also explore challenges such as non-backward compatible modifications and versioning.

Your clients need security—and so you'll learn to design to security scopes and mitigate constraints related to networking and data management. Plus, you’ll explore paradigms beyond REST, and fully describe and document your APIs with OpenAPI and JSON Schema. Your web-facing services will soon be easier to consume and your clients—internal and external—will be happier than ever!

About the reader

Written for developers with some experience building and consuming APIs.

About the author

Arnaud Lauret is an internationally known and recognized API expert with a background in development and architecture. He runs the API Handyman blog and is a frequent speaker at API conferences around the world. He is now API Governance Lead at Postman.