One day I can say “Amazon did that, we should do it too” and may be quite displeased to hear “but, we’re not Amazon”. And the next one, I can be quite displeased to hear “Github did that, we should do it too” and respond “it’s not because Github did it, that we should do it too”. Why such inconsistency?

While doing API design reviews and API design training sessions, I often see resource paths designed in an anarchic way. By anarchic, I mean their various levels seem to have been chosen randomly or some of them seem at awkward places. But why should such paths should be considered wrong? Let’s see a few examples of how to not design resource paths to talk about it.

C’est avec un grand plaisir que j’ai répondu à l’invitation de Stéphane Beuret pour parler d’API (en français pour une fois) dans son podcast Electro Monkeys. On y parle de lavabo, de mon livre (The Design of Web APIs, en anglais lui) mais aussi et surtout de design d’API, de sécurité, cycle de vie et gestion des erreurs. Toutes ces choses auxquelles il faut penser pour faire de bonnes API Web.

If you want to discover the OpenAPI Specification format, this video is for you! In my first ever (recorded) live coding session, given at the 2021 Manning API Conference, I demonstrate basic, advanced, and even hidden features that will help you to efficiently create complete, accurate, and maintainable API descriptions when designing documenting APIs.

I started this project with a simple API Design Guidelines list in mind and ended with a fully analyzed collection of API design guidelines. I created it for others but I use it myself too. When I wonder how to handle some API design matters, I select the related topic and read how others handle it. To be honest, it needs some refresh, it is a real pain to update and maintain and could be more user friendly; that’s on my todo list.

I built the OpenAPI map because I was constantly searching for “how do this with the OpenAPI spec” and also “but where is that thing” in the specification. Having the OpenAPI specification represented as a tree given essential information and quick access to source documentation of each element saved me countless time.