You're reading from RESTful API Design Patterns and Best Practices Master REST API design with real-world patterns, lifecycle management, and OpenAPI practices

Product type Paperback

Published in Oct 2025

Publisher Packt

ISBN-13 9781835885284

Length 406 pages

Edition 1st Edition

Languages

JavaScript

Tools

.NET

Concepts

REST API

Authors (2):

Andrzej Jarzyna

Samir Amzani

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Table of Contents (20) Chapters

Preface

1. The Apprentice’s Study – Preparing for the Craft

2. The “Why” of API Development FREE CHAPTER

3. API as a Product: Designing APIs with a Product Mindset

4. Understanding Application and API Lifecycles

5. Applying Domain-Driven Design to APIs

6. The Wizard’s Grimoire – Mastering the Fundamentals of REST

7. Comparing and Choosing the Right API Style

8. REST Design Constraints and Maturity Models

9. Constructing an API Design Domain Model

10. Designing and Managing Effective API Contracts

11. The Archmage’s Circle – Forging and Evolving API Contracts

12. Understanding the OpenAPI Specification

13. OpenAPI as a Contract: Best Practices and Implementation

14. Using JSON Schema to Define Your Object Models

15. Don’t Hate Your Hypermedia: Creating APIs for Humans and AIs

16. API Change Management: Strategies for Versioning and Evolution

17. Unlock Your Book’s Exclusive Benefits

How to unlock these benefits in three easy steps

18. Other Books You May Enjoy

19. Index

The building blocks of API as a product

In practice, treating an API as a product involves several key requirements to ensure it meets the needs of its users and delivers the right value. Let’s look at the main requirements.

Customer centricity

Consumer centricity refers to a business approach that prioritizes the needs and use cases of your customers. This principle involves talking to your customers, understanding and anticipating their requirements, and designing the APIs together. For example, Stripe has a strong consumer-centric culture as they gather the voices of the customers by using diverse ways and tactics to gain empathy from their users and understand their needs. As a tactic, Stripe performs structured user experience research to answer questions such as What challenges do developers face when using our APIs?. They record the developers trying to integrate using Stripe API to find areas of friction and identify unforeseen pains.In addition to talking to your customers...