When developing solutions, you typically plan for end users who are not programmers or who are not particularly technically savvy.
Giving them a graphical user interface means you should have a good idea of what they need it to do if you’ve been doing your work well. However, API creation is distinct. You’re probably not even aware of who the people you’re creating an interface for are.
Whoever they are, they will be able to find every last technical flaw in your program because they have the sophistication (or at least the perception of having sophistication) in that area.
Your users will likely appreciate criticizing your API Integration just as much as you would enjoy criticizing theirs.
5 Rules for Creating a Great Web API
- Documentation
- Consistency
- Stability
- Flexibility
- Adoption Ease and Security
Rule 1 :Document Everything
The bottom line is that guidance is crucial if you want anyone to use your API. In some ways, it resembles the present wrap because it is the first thing users will see. If your API is presented well, users are more apt to use it and put up with any quirks.
The documentation of the API methods themselves, including sample requests and responses and descriptions of each element in both, is the relatively simple portion. Fortunately, there are more and more software tools available that make it easier and more convenient to create documentation.
Alternately, you could create a program on your own that analyzes your API, endpoints, and methods and produces the necessary documentation for you.
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Included usage examples and, ideally, tutorials are what set excellent guidance apart from adequate documentation. The user can now begin to comprehend your API thanks to this. It helps them get settled and helps them mentally process your API.
Rule 2: Stability and Consistency
If you’ve ever used Facebook’s API, you know how often they deprecate and entirely rebuild their APIs. No matter how much you admire their hacker culture or their product, their point of view is not one that is beneficial to developers.
The reason they are still popular is because they have a billion users, not because their API is fantastic.However, you most likely do not have the luxury of having such a sizable user base and market share, thus you will need a far less volatile API to keep older versions operational and supported for a considerable amount of time. maybe years.
Prepare ahead of time and version your API from the beginning, explicitly including a version number in the URL so that users can rely on version 1 working and may update to any future version when they’re ready to do so.
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If you need to eventually phase out a previous version, go ahead, but be sure to give plenty of warning and provide a transition plan.A changelog that details the differences between your API’s versions must also be recorded and made publicly available so that users can easily upgrade.
Rule 3: Be Flexible
There must be some balance, though, as with everything. It’s wise to have at least some tolerance or flexibility with regard to your input and output constraints because it’s impossible to predict every way users will want to use your service and because not every client platform is consistent (e.g., not every platform has excellent JSON support or a good OAuth library).
For instance, many APIs provide a number of output formats, like JSON, YAML, XML, etc., but only allow for choosing the format in the URL. In order to maintain flexibility, you might allow this to be supplied in the URL as well.
You should at least be supporting normal POST variables, and many current applications offer JSON as well, so those two are an excellent place to start.
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It’s important to remember that not everyone will share your technological preferences. You can find more beneficial alternatives and include them into your API by doing a little study on how other APIs operate and speaking with other developers.
Rule 4: Safety
Although it goes without saying that security is among the most crucial features to provide in your web service, many developers make it incredibly challenging to utilize. As the API provider, you must provide practical illustrations of how to authenticate and allow API access.
This shouldn’t be a challenging problem that requires an end user to work on it for hours. Make it clear that either no coding is required or that it merely takes a short amount of time.
The organization prefers a straightforward token-based authentication method for the majority of APIs; the token is a user-specific random hash that can be reset at any time if it has been lost or stolen.
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Permit the token to be sent via an HTTP header or POST.Another option is to use a token that is generated using a salt value and a unique identifier.
Make sure to validate a list of URLs per-account for the token if the API you created is intended to be accessed via JavaScript on a public website. No one will be able to examine the API requests, take the user’s token, and use it on their own.
Verify every input. If you are using sophisticated input like XML or JSON, you should preferable utilize a well-known library to safely process all user input. You’ll be in for a world of hurt if you try to design your own parser.
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Rule 5: Adoption Is Simple
The most crucial rule in the group, this one builds on all the others. As stated in the documentation rule, test this out with users who are unfamiliar with your API.
Make sure users can quickly start using your API, even if it’s only by following a tutorial, and that it’s at least a basic implementation.
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Final Phrases
It is easy to find web services and their APIs. Regrettably, most are challenging to utilise. Poor design, a lack of documentation, volatility, unfixed flaws, or, in some situations, a combination of all of the above, are possible causes.
Your web API will be more streamlined, well-documented, and user-friendly if you comply with these rules. Due to how uncommon certain APIs actually are, they have a significantly higher chance of becoming popular and being utilised widely.
