Working with REST API
A REST API requires a host URL that acts as the primary address for your interactions. REST APIs also need a set of endpoints, which are unique addresses within-host URLs responsible for its functionality. Moreover, it is a good practice to document the endpoints, return value, data types, and other essentials of a REST API.
The below diagram is a high-level representation of the required organization of your code to create a REST API. You may have one or more databases that contain data that other applications might need. So, they will use the REST API that uses SQL and JDBC to interact with the database. REST APIs enable you to centralize all your basic logic in one place instead of rewriting it every time you want to create a new app as shown by the below image
Now, APIs are designed to return the required data whenever a user calls them. However, when you use REST APIS, it not only returns the requested data but also presents it in a well-structured form for representation. A REST API utilizes a client-server architecture that allows different applications to communicate. The client software makes a call to the server application using a REST API. The Server application sends the requested data in a structured form organized using key parameters over the HTTP protocol.
Characteristics of a well-designed API
- Flexible: REST API is flexible with multiple types of calls like returning different data formats and changing structurally with the correct implementation of hypermedia. It allows users to communicate back and forth with clients and servers, even if they are hosted on different servers.
- Adaptable: REST API is adaptable to any modification done in data that resides in the database, even when hosted on the different back- and front-end servers. Since it depends to a certain extent on codes, it helps synchronize data within websites without any issue.
- Ease of Understanding: As REST uses HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT or DELETE) methods for communication, these methods are self-explanatory. In addition, REST architecture helps increase developers’ productivity, allowing them to display the information on the client-side and store or manipulate the data on the server-side
REST API Best Practices
While designing REST APIs, you need to focus on all these best practices to make your REST API the best. As a REST API designer, you must focus on the safety as well as the working of the API.
REST API Best Practices: Prioritize Nouns over Verbs in URI
Since REST API is mostly developed for resources like services, it is essential to use Nouns and not verbs. So it is better to use only Nouns to represent an entity in REST endpoint paths. This is because the HTTP request method already consists of verbs. So having verb in REST API endpoints will not pull any new information. You must use tags to change the resource’s state.
The following table helps you in understanding the REST API Verbs:
| REST Verb | Action |
| GET | Fetches a record or set of resources from the server |
| OPTIONS | Fetches all available REST operations |
| POST | Creates a new set of resources or a resource |
| PUT | Updates or replaces the given record |
| PATCH | Modifies the given record |
| DELETE | Deletes the given resource |
Here are a few examples to show how the endpoints should look like,
- GET/books/123
- DELETE/ books/123
- POST/books
- PUT/books/123
- PATCH/book/123
REST API Best Practices: Prefer using Plural naming conventions
Generally, it is the best practice to use plural nouns for collections. This plural naming convention becomes a global code. This also helps normal people to understand that these groups of APIs form a collection.
The following table helps you in understanding the right and wrong usage of plural names in REST API :
| Do’s | Dont’s |
| GET/bikes/123 | GET/bike/123 |
| POST/bikes | POST/bike |
| GET/bikes | GET/bike |
REST API Best Practices: Utilize Resource Nesting Efficiently
Resource nesting is a practice of clubbing two functions that have some hierarchy or are linked to each other. Nesting to one level is one of the best practices to group resources that are logically coherent. For example, ‘order’ and ‘users’ are two resources of the same category in an online shop. The ‘user’ makes the ‘order’ and the ‘order’ belongs to the ‘user’. The following code explains the scenario discussed above.
/users // list all users
/users/123 // specific user
/users/123/orders //list of orders that belong to a specific user
/users/123/orders/0001 // specific orders of a specific users order listOverusing Nesting is not good in any case. When overused, Nesting loses its appeal and creates unwanted dependency issues. So the REST API best practice that can be followed is limiting the use of nesting to one level.
REST API Best Practices: Systematic Documentation
Another important REST API best practice is to document all the solutions in a very systematic manner. The utilization of framework, application, or software usage requires proper documentation. This document will act as a reference while troubleshooting an issue. This API documentation needs to be precise and simple enough for non-technical people to understand it. Doing such systematic documentation will help your users indulge and understand all the necessary aspects like error handling, security, and authentication.
REST API Best Practices: Data Filtering options
When the database grows, it becomes a great challenge to manage it. The main challenge in this huge database is to retrieve only the requested data. The entire database should not be exposed while retrieving data. For fulfilling this, you need to use a filter that will pull data that satisfies the required criteria. By filtering the data while retrieving, huge bandwidth is saved in the client’s end. REST API provides you with 4 types of filtering options. The REST API filtering options include:
Filtering
Using this you can filter results that satisfy your required conditions. You can use search parameters like country, creation, date and etc for this.
ET /users?country=UK
GET /users?creation_date=2021-10-11
GET /users?creation_date=2021-10-11Sorting
You can sort your results in ascending and descending order using this option.
GET /users?sort=birthdate_date:asc
GET /users?sort=birthdate_date:descPaging
Using the ‘limit’ option, you can narrow down the results to the required number. You can also use ‘offset’ to show the part of the overall results displayed.
GET /users?limit=120
GET /users?offset=3Field Selection
Using the field selection function, you can request to display a specific part of the data available for that object. While you query an object with many fields, you can specify the fields in your response. An object will have ‘Name’, ‘Surname’, ‘Birthdate’, ‘Email’, ‘Phone’ as its fields.
For example, when you want to retrieve the birthdate and email to automate birthday wishes. You can use a query like this:
For a specific user:
GET/ users/123?fields=name,birthdate,emailFor a full list of users:
GET/ users?fields=name,birthdate,email
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