The API Academy’s Mike Amundsen is regularly asked which books he would recommend for those who want to learn more about designing, implementing and maintaining Web APIs. In this article, Mike offers a shortlist of books he discovered as he was learning about APIs – many of which are still among the books he consults most regularly.
Category: For API Developers
Dr. Dobb’s: Building Successful Web APIs
The syntax of APIs matter much less than their discoverability and the ease with which developers can figure out how to use them effectively. In this article, Ronnie Mitra of the API Academy discusses the nuts and bolts of designing developer-friendly APIs.
InfoQ: A Web API Design Methodology
Designing Web APIs is more than just URLs, HTTP status codes, headers and payloads. The process of design – what is essentially a “look and feel” for your API – is very important and is well-worth the effort. This article briefly outlines a methodology that results in an API design that takes advantage of both…
InfoQ: Description, Discovery & Profiles – A Primer
Take a look at the key opportunities and challenges in the API description/discovery/profiles space Kicking off InfoQ’s The Next Level in Web APIs series, Mike Amundsen takes a look at key formats and vendors in the API description/discovery/profiles space then identifies the opportunities and challenges in this fast-moving portion of the Web API field.
Tutorial: Handle Errors on the Web
Learn about the right and wrong ways for Web applications to handle errors All applications need to report and handle errors. Doing this on the Web requires dealing with both protocol-level and application-level information. This video shows both the “right” and the “wrong” way to handle errors on the Web.
The Internet of Things and Security – Redux
The recent debacle of the Nissan Leaf triggered memories. Twenty three months ago, I wrote a blog entitled The Internet of Things – Today. In that posting, I mused about the rapidly emerging IoT, and some of the cool new things that were beginning to appear, such as Anki Drive and Nest solutions. I also…
How-to: HTTP Caching for RESTful & Hypermedia APIs
Learn how to implement HTTP caching properly in your APIs Cache headers have been an essential part of the HTTP specification from the very beginning. They have played a crucial role in scaling the Web to the enormous size that it has today. Or at least, that statement is true when we talk about the…
Webinar: Unleashing API Innovation Through Developers
To enable app developers as a means of driving innovation in your business, you must provide more than just an API. Developers need context and support in order to ensure that using your API as the basis for an app will benefit them, you and end users alike. Watch this CA Technologies webinar featuring Matt McLarty of the API Academy and…
API Design 203: The USE Paradigm
Prioritize usability, scalability and evolvability in API design To work effectively, a Web API must display a range of specific software qualities. In this lesson, we outline what we call the “USE Paradigm” – a principle of API design, which states that interface designers should prioritize three particularly important software qualities: usability, scalability and evolvability….
TechTalk: Common OAuth Security Mistakes and Threat Mitigations
With vulnerabilities recently surfacing in the OAuth implementations of popular service providers like Yammer, Instagram and Facebook, it’s hard to blame anyone for getting the impression that there are fundamental security flaws in the OAuth protocol. Francois Lascelles, Chief Architect at Layer7, answered OAuth questions live, discussed the common security mistakes made in OAuth implementations…