Modernize Your Apps With API Patterns (part 1)
API definition
An API, or Application Programming Interface, is a set of programming instructions and protocols used to enable communication between software applications. Essentially, an API acts as an intermediary that facilitates interaction between different software programs by defining how they can communicate and exchange information. APIs have become increasingly important in the modern software landscape, as they allow developers to build complex systems that integrate with other software applications, services, and platforms. APIs allows software developers to leverage the functionality of existing software applications and services, rather than having to build everything from scratch. This can save time and effort, and allow for more rapid development and innovation.
This API diagram includes several key components. The first is the API itself, which acts as an interface between different applications. The API may consist of several sub-components, such as authentication and authorization mechanisms, data models, and request/response formats.Overall, APIs are crucial for modern software development, enabling integration between different applications, platforms, and services to create more powerful and interconnected systems.
Types of API Architectures
We can also understand APIs in terms of their architecture. An API’s architecture consists of the rules that guide what information an API can share with clients and how it shares the data. REST, SOAP, and RPC are the most popular API architectures in use today — let’s unpack each one in more detail.
REST
Today, the majority of web APIs are built on REST. REST, which stands for representational state transfer, is a set of guidelines for scalable, lightweight, and easy-to-use APIs. A REST API (or “RESTful” API) is an API that follows REST guidelines and is used for transferring data from a server to a requesting client.
REST guidelines are :
•Client-Server Separation: All client-server interactions must be in the form of a request from the client, followed by a response from the server. Servers can’t request and clients can’t respond.
•Uniform Interface: All requests and responses must use HTTP as the communication protocol and be formatted in a specific way to ensure compatibility between any client and any server. Server responses are formatted in JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).
•Stateless: Each client-server interaction is independent of every other interaction. The server stores no data from client requests and remembers nothing from past interactions.
•Layered system: Requests and responses must always be formatted the same way, even when passed through intermediate servers between the client and the API.
•Cacheable: Server responses should indicate whether a provided resource can be cached by the client and for how long.
By following these guidelines, REST APIs can be used for quick, easy, secure data transfers, making them a popular choice among developers.
SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a protocol for transmitting data across networks and can be used to build APIs. SOAP is standardized by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and utilizes XML to encode information.
SOAP strictly defines how messages should be sent and what must be included in them. This makes SOAP APIs more secure than REST APIs, although the rigid guidelines also make them more code-heavy and harder to implement in general.
For this reason, SOAP is often implemented for internal data transfers that require high security, and the more flexible REST architecture is deployed more commonly everywhere else. But, one more advantage to SOAP is that it works over any communication protocol (not just HTTP, as is the case with REST).
GraphQL API: Developed by Meta in 2012 and open sourced in 2015, a GraphQL API is defined as a query language for APIs. GraphQL allows for requesting clients to receive exact data rather than a fixed structure of data from requests performed with a traditional REST API.
API Modernization approaches
API Strategy
An API Strategy should be in place in order to expose which set of data & services to API consumers. i.e. external facing APIs, Process APIs or System APIs.
An API strategy is a critical component of digital transformation.
We ill start by defining an API strategy: start by defining your API strategy, including the types of APIs you will use, the security protocols you will employ, and the processes for integrating and testing APIs.
Defining an API strategy involves setting a clear direction for how your organization will design, build, and manage APIs to meet business goals and customer needs.
Establish a digital strategy: build a strategic view of AIPs and API vision.
Align organization and culture: API Mindset, leadership and investments.
Evaluation and build supporting tech: align right metrics in the digital value chain.
Engage the current ecosystem: Maintain and optimize: As you continue to use your updated application, monitor its performance and user feedback, and make ongoing updates and optimizations to improve its functionality and usability.
Establish a digital strategy
Establishing your digital strategy is the one stage in the API strategy blueprint that’s critical to the success of the rest. While the strategy will morph over time, it will serve as your north star for the other three stages. Without a well-defined and executive-backed digital strategy, it will be nearly impossible to create a thriving API ecosystem.
Your digital strategy development will be theoretical since it relies on digital instincts and creativity — which can pose challenges for many organizations. Frequently, organizations struggle to come up with realistic business outcomes (like building new customer experiences) based on platform and ecosystem thinking since they haven’t done it before.
Being open-minded to calculated risk is key for the strategy development process. One of your first organizational changes should involve working with experts who have a history with game-changing platform business outcomes.
Align organization and culture
Aligning organization and culture is a critical component of developing an effective API strategy.
A full lifecycle API management platform includes a set of tools that help organizations design, develop, deploy, and manage their APIs. Here are some key components that are typically included in a full lifecycle API management platform:
1.API design tools: These tools help developers create API specifications and documentation, including tools like Swagger/OpenAPI.
2.API development tools: These tools provide a framework for building APIs, including tools like Node.js or Express.js.
3.API testing tools: These tools help developers test APIs for functionality, performance, and security, including tools like Postman or SoapUI.
4.API deployment tools: These tools automate the process of deploying APIs to production environments, including tools like Docker or Kubernetes.
5.API security tools: These tools help ensure the security of APIs and the data they expose, including tools like OAuth or JWT.
6.API analytics tools: These tools provide insights into API usage and performance, including tools like Google Analytics or New Relic.
7.API monitoring tools: These tools monitor APIs for uptime and availability, including tools like Pingdom or Nagios.
8.API management portal: This portal provides a central location for developers to access API documentation, test APIs, and manage API access.
A full lifecycle API management platform may also include additional features such as API versioning, rate limiting, and API gateway functionality. Popular API management platforms include Apigee, AWS API Gateway, and Kong.
Evaluation and build supporting tech
Evaluating and building support tech is an important part of developing an API strategy. Here are some steps you can take to evaluate and build support tech for your API program:
1.Evaluate existing infrastructure: Start by evaluating your organization’s existing infrastructure to identify any gaps or areas for improvement. This may include evaluating your current technology stack, such as your server infrastructure, data storage, and API management platform.
2.Identify necessary technology: Determine what technology is necessary to support your API program. This may include technology for API design, development, testing, deployment, and management. Consider the specific needs of your API program, such as security requirements, performance needs, and scalability.
3.Assess technology options: Research and assess different technology options that are available to support your API program. This may include evaluating different API management platforms, programming languages, and frameworks.
4.Prioritize technology needs: Prioritize the technology needs of your API program based on their importance and impact on the success of the program. This may involve working with different teams and stakeholders to determine the most critical technology needs.
5.Build support tech: Once you have identified the necessary technology and evaluated your options, build support tech for your API program. This may involve working with developers and other stakeholders to build custom solutions or integrating existing tools and platforms.
6.Continuously evaluate and optimize: Continuously evaluate and optimize your support tech to ensure that it is meeting the needs of your API program and supporting your strategic goals. This may involve making adjustments to your technology stack or investing in new tools and platforms as needed.
Overall, evaluating and building support tech for your API program is an ongoing process that involves assessing your organization’s needs, researching and assessing technology options, building custom solutions, and continuously evaluating and optimizing your technology stack. By investing in the right support tech, you can ensure the success of your API program and achieve your strategic goals.
Engage the current ecosystem
Engaging the ecosystem is an important aspect of API strategy that involves building a community of developers, partners, and other stakeholders around your APIs. This can help drive adoption, increase innovation, and create new business opportunities.
Here are some key considerations for engaging the ecosystem in your API strategy:
1.Developer experience: Providing a good developer experience is crucial for engaging the developer community around your APIs. This includes providing clear documentation, sample code, tutorials, and other resources that make it easy for developers to get started with your APIs.
2.Developer outreach: In addition to providing resources for developers, you also need to actively reach out to the developer community and build relationships with them. This can include participating in developer events, providing support through forums and other channels, and creating a developer community that facilitates collaboration and knowledge-sharing.
3.Partner programs: Partner programs can help you engage partners and other stakeholders in your ecosystem. This can include providing co-marketing opportunities, joint sales initiatives, and other benefits that incentivize partners to use and promote your APIs.
4.API marketplace: Creating an API marketplace can help you reach a broader audience of developers and partners and increase the visibility of your APIs. This can include creating a central repository of APIs, providing tools and resources for developers, and offering marketing and promotional opportunities to API providers.
5.Innovation initiatives: Encouraging innovation around your APIs can help you create new business opportunities and drive adoption. This can include hosting hackathons, offering prizes for innovative use cases, and providing support for developer innovation through mentorship and other programs.
Overall, engaging the ecosystem is an important part of API strategy that can help you build a community of developers, partners, and other stakeholders around your APIs. By providing a good developer experience, reaching out to the developer community, creating partner programs and API marketplaces, and encouraging innovation, you can increase adoption, drive innovation, and create new business opportunities.
API foundation
API foundation is the basic set of principles and best practices that guide the development and implementation of APIs. This includes considerations related to frontend integration, backend integration, and different types of APIs.
1.Frontend Integration: Frontend integration involves integrating APIs with frontend applications to create effective, user-friendly applications. Effective API design, security, documentation, data formats, and error handling are all important considerations for frontend integration.
1.Backend Integration: Backend integration involves integrating APIs with backend systems and applications. API foundation includes best practices for API design, security, documentation, data formats, error handling, testing, versioning, and management, all of which are important for backend integration.
2.API Types:
•Public APIs: Public APIs may also be called external or open APIs. These APIs are available for anyone to use with little to no restriction, though many require registration and authentication, often via an easy-to-grab API key. Public APIs are generally easy to access because they are intended for the public to use and designed to encourage new use cases and integrations. Public APIs may require agreeing to a terms of use or impose rate-limiting on requests by free accounts, but they make access open to anyone who complies, without extensive verification of the user’s identity or use case.
•Community APIs: Community APIs are open to a specific community or group of developers, such as those who are building applications for a particular platform or ecosystem. Examples of community APIs include the APIs provided by Salesforce for its AppExchange ecosystem.
•Solution-Internal APIs: Solution-internal APIs are used within an organization to connect different systems and applications. These APIs are not exposed to external developers or users and are typically used to support internal workflows and processes.
•API Description: API description refers to the documentation that describes an API’s functionality, resources, parameters, response formats, and other important details. Well-documented APIs are easier to understand and integrate with, and API description is an important part of API foundation.
Overall, API foundation is a comprehensive set of principles and best practices that guide the development and implementation of APIs. By following API foundation best practices, developers can create APIs that are secure, reliable, and easy to use, leading to more effective and successful applications.
API Gateway pattern
When developing applications based on complex or large microservices established on multiple client applications, it is recommended to use the API Gateway pattern.
The API Gateway pattern is an integration pattern for clients that communicate with a system service, designed to provide a single abstraction layer between the underlying services and the customer’s needs. This is the single entry point for all clients. It is similar to the Façade pattern of object-oriented programming (OOP) design, but in this case, it’s part of a distributed system.
The API Gateway pattern is often referred to as Backend for Frontend because its implementation is based on the needs of the client application. The pattern provides a reverse proxy whose purpose is to redirect or route client requests to internal microservices endpoints.
Main Features of API Gateway Pattern
The API Gateway pattern provide several benefits. Since we accommodate the client request and route the internal microservices, we can handle some useful features into API Gateway. Lets see features.
See in the next article Use cases.
