/api-quick-reference

A compressive note on API

API Quick Reference

HTTP Verbs

  • GET: Retrieve data from the server
  • POST: Send data to the server to create a resource
  • PUT: Send data to the server to update a resource
  • PATCH: Send data to the server to update a resource partially
  • DELETE: Delete a resource from the server
  • TRACE: Returns the full HTTP request received by the server for debugging and diagnostic purposes
  • OPTIONS: Returns the HTTP methods supported by the server for the requested URL
  • CONNECT: Converts the request connection to a transparent TCP/IP tunnel for secure communication
  • PURGE: Invalidates a cached resource
  • LOCK: Locks the resource for exclusive use by the client
  • UNLOCK: Unlocks the resource previously locked by the client
  • MKCOL: Creates a new collection resource
  • COPY: Copies the resource identified by the Request-URI to the destination URI.

HTTP Status Codes

  • 1xx: Informational
  • 2xx: Success
  • 3xx: Redirection
  • 4xx: Client Errors
  • 5xx: Server Errors

Response Headers

  • Content-Type: Specifies the MIME type of the data in the response body
  • Content-Length: Specifies the length of the response body in bytes
  • Cache-Control: Specifies the caching behavior of the response
  • Location: Specifies the URI of a resource that can be used to retrieve the requested resource
  • Server: Specifies the name and version of the server software that generated the response
  • Access-Control-Allow-Origin: Specifies which origins are allowed to access the resource
  • Set-Cookie: Specifies a cookie that should be stored by the client and sent back to the server with future requests
  • Expires: Specifies the date and time after which the response is considered stale
  • Last-Modified: Specifies the date and time the resource was last modified.

API Design

  • REST: Representational State Transfer, a design pattern for building web services
  • SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol, a messaging protocol for exchanging structured data
  • GraphQL: A query language and runtime for building APIs
  • API Gateway: A service that manages, protects, and scales APIs

API Architectures

  • SOA: Service-Oriented Architecture, an architectural style for building distributed systems
  • Microservices: An architectural style for building complex applications as a suite of small, independent services
  • Serverless: A cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider manages the infrastructure and automatically allocates resources as needed
  • Event-Driven: An architectural style where the flow of data between components is triggered by events
  • RESTful API: An architectural style that uses HTTP requests to GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE data.

API Design Patterns

  • Adapter Pattern: A pattern that converts the interface of a class into another interface that clients expect
  • Decorator Pattern: A pattern that adds behavior to an individual object dynamically
  • Proxy Pattern: A pattern that provides a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access to it
  • Chain of Responsibility Pattern: A pattern that delegates commands to a chain of processing objects
  • Observer Pattern: A pattern that defines a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.

API Security

  • OAuth: An open standard for authorization used for protecting APIs
  • JWT: JSON Web Tokens, a standard for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object
  • SSL/TLS: Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security, a protocol for establishing a secure connection between a client and a server
  • API Key: A secret token used to authenticate API requests
  • Rate Limiting: A technique used to limit the number of requests that can be made to an API over a specific period of time
  • OpenID Connect: An authentication layer built on top of OAuth that allows users to be authenticated across multiple domains
  • Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS): A mechanism that allows many resources (e.g., fonts, JavaScript, etc.) on a web page to be requested from another domain outside the domain from which the resource originated

API Testing

  • Postman: A popular tool for testing and debugging APIs
  • SoapUI: A tool for testing SOAP and REST web services
  • Swagger: A tool for designing, building, and testing APIs
  • JMeter: A tool for testing the performance of APIs
  • TestRail: A test management tool for planning, executing, and tracking API tests
  • Dredd: A command-line tool for testing API documentation against its backend implementation
  • REST Assured: A Java-based library for testing RESTful APIs
  • Karate DSL: A testing framework for API testing using Gherkin syntax
  • HttpMaster: A tool for testing and debugging APIs
  • Assertible: A tool for testing and monitoring APIs with automated tests.

API Development

  • Node.js: A JavaScript runtime for building server-side applications
  • Express: A popular framework for building web applications and APIs with Node.js
  • Django: A Python web framework for building web applications and APIs
  • Flask: A lightweight Python web framework for building web applications and APIs
  • Spring: A Java framework for building enterprise-level web applications and APIs
  • Swagger Editor: A tool for designing and documenting APIs using the OpenAPI specification
  • Postman: A tool for testing and debugging APIs
  • Insomnia: A tool for designing, testing, and debugging APIs
  • Paw: A tool for designing and testing APIs on Mac OS
  • API Blueprint: A high-level API description language for building RESTful APIs.

API Implementation Platforms

  • Firebase: A mobile and web application development platform developed by Google
  • Backendless: A mobile and web application development platform that allows developers to build and deploy applications without backend coding
  • Parse Server: An open-source version of the Parse backend that can be deployed to any infrastructure
  • Amazon API Gateway: A fully managed service that makes it easy for developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs
  • Microsoft Azure API Management: A fully managed service that enables users to publish, secure, transform, maintain, and monitor APIs.

API Performance

  • Caching: A technique for improving API performance by storing responses in a cache
  • Throttling: A technique for limiting the rate of requests to an API to prevent overload
  • Load Balancing: A technique for distributing traffic evenly across multiple servers to improve API performance
  • Content Delivery Network (CDN): A distributed system of servers that delivers content to users based on their geographic location to improve API performance
  • Edge Computing: A computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it is needed to reduce latency and improve API performance.

API Monitoring

  • Pingdom: A tool for monitoring the uptime and performance of APIs
  • New Relic: A tool for monitoring the performance of APIs and other web applications
  • Datadog: A monitoring and analytics platform for cloud-scale applications and APIs
  • Sumo Logic: A cloud-based log management and analytics platform for APIs and other applications
  • Loggly: A cloud-based log management platform for monitoring APIs and other applications

API Standards

  • JSON API: A specification for building APIs that use JSON as the data format
  • HAL: Hypertext Application Language, a standard for building hypermedia-driven APIs
  • JSON-LD: A format for representing linked data on the web
  • OData: Open Data Protocol, a standard for building and consuming RESTful APIs
  • AsyncAPI: A specification for building event-driven APIs.

API Standards Organizations

  • W3C: The World Wide Web Consortium, an international community that develops web standards
  • IETF: The Internet Engineering Task Force, an open standards organization that develops and promotes Internet standards
  • OASIS: Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, a nonprofit consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of open standards for the global information society
  • RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML): A YAML-based language for describing RESTful APIs developed by MuleSoft
  • JSON API: A specification for building APIs that use JSON as the data format.