Those involved in the field are united on what makes a great application programming interface, or API. The first condition that must be met is the fulfillment of the API’s core purpose: linking two applications together to communicate with each other. Other conditions include ease of use and maintenance, scalability, and smoothness of integration into the client’s system. All this combined yield an API product that increases the business value of its client, as well as the prestige of the API team.
This formula for a well-designed API may be simple in theory, but the caveat is that it’s not half as easy to practice. In order to craft an API that’s up to standard, developers have to face a number of challenges. These range from tight project deadlines to increasing complexities in the system. Given those obstacles, what should one do when designing an API?
Here’s a quick list of design strategies that any API team can follow. If you check off on these, you’ll have a higher chance of turning out a quality product.
Be Crystal Clear About Its Purpose
The foundation of good API design is a clear understanding of what the product is meant to achieve. Your API’s functionality should be both easy to name and easy to explain. Knowledge about the API’s design, and its various selling points, should go beyond the API’s developers. Your marketers, support staff, and others who aren’t as well-versed in the technical aspects of API design should get the layman’s version of it, too. And don’t forget about your clients, either. You should make it easy for them to digest what value the API brings to them.
Every great API design follows a particular vision. Make sure you have one and that everyone’s understanding is aligned before you start working in earnest.
Choose a Good Design Platform
Do yourself and your colleagues a favor by subscribing to a good design platform. It will make all the difference in your API’s design if you have a full toolkit and a conducive modeling, planning, and testing environment.
Consider investing in a tool that allows OpenAPI design for developers and that’s supportive of the OpenAPI Specification (OAS). You may also want features like a mock server to test your code and interactive documentation to bring your API design to life. All these will contribute to your productivity rate with the design work.
Build Small
Though API design is in no way a simple task, it’s also regarded as a game of smallness. An API actually doesn’t need to be bulked up in order to fulfill its requirements. That’s why it’s actually a good strategy to be minimalist in your design approach.
Be mindful when adding each line of code and don’t give your API too much to do. It’s much easier to add to the design as needed, rather than to backtrack and remove elements one by one.
Guard Your Information
Another factor you should pay attention to is the privacy and security of your work. Your API design should not only be functional, but also safe to use. This prevents any troublesome information leaks happening to your API.
Keep classes and members as private as possible. And, save for constants, public classes should have no public fields. Remember these, and other matters of security, when designing the API product.
Watch Your (Code) Language
Clear, concise code should be a distinguishing part of your API design. Remember, you’re not the only developer who’ll be working with your code. An outside developer who’ll be working on the API in the future should have as easy a time as you.
Write your code in consideration of other developers. Be as consistent and straightforward as possible. The same word should mean the same thing all throughout the design. Your partner developers will be thankful for the brevity and clarity in your code.
Be Conventional
When it comes to API design, there’s actually no need to reinvent the wheel. Stick with proven API industry standards, as they enable maximum collaboration and efficiency in your API design.
Follow the standard naming conventions, stay true to a common understanding of HTTP methods, and don’t go for obsolete parameter and return types. A uniform and conventional approach leads to quicker adoption and better developer experience all throughout.
As far as APIs go, good design equals good performance. The more mindful you are of the overall design, the better the integration experience will be. Here’s to finding the ideal work environment, equipping yourself with the right tools and getting into the right framework for designing your API.
