10 Best Practices to Follow for REST API Development
An API is a set of rules that determine how apps or devices communicate and connect with each other. Tech giants like Facebook, GitHub, and Netflix are the leaders of this show as they are hiring developers with open arms to exploit their data by using APIs. Since APIs help developers communicate with the data, they become more comfortable and easier for developers. However, REST APIs must be well-designed; else, they can create many difficulties for developers rather than enhancing the user experience. This is why REST API best practices must be followed when it comes to catering to your clients with the most efficiency. What is REST API? REST API (also known as RESTful API) is an application programming interface. Usually, HTTPS communication protocol accesses the Restful app programming interface. Basic Features of REST API Before delving into the best practices for the RESTful API design, let’s first learn the key traits of REST API: 1. Easy to View and Read Developers can easily and comfortably work with a precisely designed API as it is easy to read. They can remember its related functions and resources while dealing with it constantly. 2. Hard to Misuse You can somewhat reduce the possibilities of writing wrong code if you execute and integrate your API with a sharp and clean design. Also, it gives crucial feedback without commanding tough instructions on the end customer. 3. Outright and to the Point A comprehensive API helps developers make potential apps against the data hazard revealed by you. Hence, many API developers don’t hurry to complete the whole project simultaneously but rather create on the existing APIs. 10 Best Practices to Follow for REST API Development If you want to make your API user’s life simple and precise, you must follow some of the best REST API design and development practices. Here are some proven methods to follow while designing and developing REST APIs: 1. Clear and Concise Documentation You must have complete and clear documentation. Oftentimes, documentation is produced automatically depending on the API definition. Otherwise, you will have to ensure that the documentation can be understood easily by people with less or no experience. You need complete documentation so it can help users learn security, authentication, and error management. Moreover, it provides engaging tutorials, guides, and easy-to-use resources. Comprehensive documentation makes it simpler for users to use your API. 2. Utilizing JSON as a Data Format JSON is the most commonly utilized data format, although you can send data in other formats like CSV, XML, and HTML. JSON syntax can make data easy to read for humans. It is easy to use and offers quick and easy data assessment and execution. Moreover, it contains an extensive array of supported browser compatibility. 3. API Versioning This practice enables developers to make changes in particular actions or the data structure. You may deal with more than one API version if your project increases with time and in size. But the benefit is that this enables developers to create more enhancements and changes in their service alongside holding a part of API users that are slow in accepting new changes or not ready to change. We find mixed feedback on whether we should include an API version in the URL or a header. Academically, it should be placed in the header. But, the version must be present in the REST API URL. This makes sure the search of the browser across different versions, offering a seamless and easy experience of development. An API is usually unstable and variable as well. Although you cannot avoid the change, you should check the ways of dealing with the change. Scheduling a well-documented and declared depreciation every month is a great practice for plenty of APIs. 4. Error Management Errors should be smartly managed to reduce confusion for every API user. This returns the HTTP response codes that explain the nature of the mistake that occurred. The API maintainers get ample data from it to assess the source and reason behind the issue. If you want to keep your system error-free, just leave them unmanaged. Hence, the API customer needs to deal with errors. Here are some basic error HTTP status codes: 404 Not Found – This means that there are no resources. 403 Forbidden – This implies that an improper user has no permission to use a resource even if he/she gets verified. 401 Unauthorized – This means that the user is not authorized to employ a resource. Generally, it goes back if a user does not get verified. 400 Bad Requests – This implies that the client-side input has been unsuccessful in documentation or validation. 503 Service Unavailable – This marks that something unnecessary and unexpected action occurred on the server-side; for example, system failure, part failure, server overload, etc. 502 Bad Gateway – This denotes a null or invalid response from a crucial server. 500 Internal Server Error – It’s a basic server error. 5. Enhancing API Security Using present security frameworks like TLS and SSL is another great practice for creating APIs. SSL certificates can create a secure connection by offering a private and public key. Without this encrypted connection, you cannot get an assurance that you are safeguarding sensitive data like financial or medical info properly. TLS is SSL’s most modern version that provides improved security and protection. Regular testing is one of the essential API security best practices. You can use these 2 necessary tests: Penetrating Testing – This test decides the exposure of APIs to a real cyber attack. The tester looks for susceptibilities that might be misused by the hackers. Fuzz Testing – This test is useful for checking how APIs respond to the unnecessary or invalid input for finding errors or flaws in the code. Ultimately, rate limiting can easily prevent DoS (Denial of Service) attacks where excessive requests ruin an API’s basic functionality. Restricting the number of requests per user for some time can safeguard your API from such
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