Ever wanted to quickly find, extract or modify data coming from some JSON documents on the command line? JQ is the tool you’re looking for. In this 4 parts post series, you’ll discover why and how I use JQ with OpenAPI Specification files. But more important, you’ll get some basic and more advanced example of how to use JQ on any JSON document to get and modify JSON data as you want. In this first part we’ll focus on what is JQ, why I use it with OpenAPI files and we’ll learn how to invoke JQ and discover some of the many JQ filters that can be used to extract data from JSON.

What would you do if you had to demo API to non-developers in a highly-constrained context? How would you do without curl, Postman or any other API tool usually used? How would you do without your usual fun API examples? I had to do that a few weeks ago and was quite happy by the questions that arose and the solutions found. The whole story definitely deserves a post in order to share what I’ve learned!

There are quite many APIs out there taking advantage of all standard HTTP methods (GET, POST, PATCH, PUT and DELETE). Unfortunately, there are still some cases where consumers can’t use them all. As far as I know, GET and POST do not cause any problem at all. But as an API provider, do not take for granted that DELETE, PUT and the more dreaded PATCH HTTP methods can always be used by your consumers. I encountered this problem several times throughout the years and no later than a few weeks ago. Let’s see why and how to solve this problem.

At last, my book The Design of Web APIs is finished and printed! I gradually got back to a “normal” life since the end of summer as the book entered in its production phase, but it was only when I received the printed copies two weeks ago that I had the feeling that this adventure was really over. And then holding the book in my hands, I wondered if it was worth having spent two years of my life on it, what did I learn spending almost all my free time working on this book? That sounded like a good topic to revive the API Handyman blog.

So you want to explore in depth the OpenAPI Specification version 3.0? You should take the OpenAPI Map with you!

While answering some question on my Design of Web APIs book’s forum, I wrote:

Now that I have seen brilliant Web APIs that can be used so easily because of their design but also the overall experience some can provide (the famous “DX”) I have become far more demanding and challenging with software in general

Yes. Public web APIs definitely raise software bar. The whole software industry should take example on them …

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m writing a book about API design: The Design of Everyday APIs (edit: the book has been renamed The Design of Web APIs since this post has been written). This book is published by Manning Publications and the first two chapters are now available on the Manning Early Access Program or MEAP (affiliate link, use fcclauret discount code to get 37% off). This book is for everyone who wants to learn API design. But, what’s the story behind this book about API design? To answer this question, let’s talk about my other passion: guitar.

Join Frodo, Gollum and Gandalf on an epic API design adventure. In this session, based on my own experience defining and sharing API design common practices in my company and based on the API styles guides that I have collected on apistylebook.com, we will discover why we desperately need API style guides and how they can or cannot help us create a smooth API surface for a company.

GraphQL is new. GraphQL is cool. Look! Github dumped REST for it! We MUST do it too! Well, why not. GraphQL could be a great tool, but like any tool, you don't choose it "just because".You choose it because it solves a problem in a given context. You choose it knowing its strengths and weaknesses. During this session, while discovering what is GraphQL we will see what REST API providers should think about before blindly dumping REST for it

I’ve added the Deliveroo API Design Guidelines to the API Stylebook.

These guidelines are definitely a MUST read for any API designer.

To discover this API design guide and a short review, let’s go to the API Stylebook blog.