Jamie Tanna, a Co-maintainer of OAPI CodeGen, dives into the fascinating world of API design. He shares invaluable insights on building APIs—embracing mistakes and the iterative process. The discussion highlights the importance of flexibility and planning, addressing challenges like pagination and versioning. They advocate for continuous improvement and separating application layers for better functionality. Plus, Jamie humorously introduces the concept of 'unpop' and encourages self-reflection with the idea of creating a 'Manual of Me' for better team understanding.
Establishing a clear vision of your API's purpose upfront ensures cohesive integration of future features without disrupting its existing structure.
Implementing a versioning strategy from the beginning is crucial for managing updates and preventing disruptions for users of the API.
Learning from existing APIs and integrating prior art greatly enhances design decision-making, avoiding past mistakes and improving overall functionality.
Deep dives
Understanding API Design Theory
API design requires a foundational understanding of its theory, which serves as the guiding principle for development. This involves establishing a clear vision of what the API should achieve and documenting this theory for future reference. By defining the purpose and capabilities of the API upfront, designers can avoid corner cases that complicate future changes. It helps in ensuring that as additional features are needed, they can be integrated cohesively without compromising the existing structure.
The Importance of API Versioning
Versioning is a critical aspect of API design that should be considered from the beginning. It allows for planned updates and changes without disrupting existing functionalities for users. By thinking through versioning early in the development process, teams can implement changes more seamlessly and with less confusion for consumers of the API. The experience of maintaining previous projects underscores the necessity of having a versioning strategy in place to manage updates effectively.
Learning from Prior Art
Integrating prior art into the API design process is essential for creating robust interfaces. Studying existing APIs and their design decisions helps avoid repeating mistakes and fosters better planning for functionality. Understanding how other systems address similar challenges provides valuable insights into potential pitfalls and best practices. This approach encourages designers to enhance their APIs by learning from both successful and unsuccessful implementations.
Separation of Concerns in API Structure
Maintaining a clear separation of concerns within the API is vital for future flexibility and sustainability. This involves differentiating between the business logic and the technical layers of the API, allowing for easier updates and maintenance. By designing a robust core that is insulated from the web or transfer layer, changes can be made without significant rewrites. This structure aids in adapting the API to different platforms seamlessly, whether it's a web service or a cloud function.
Flexibility and Responsiveness in API Design
APIs must be designed with flexibility to accommodate changing requirements and uses over time. This includes anticipating the need for optional data fields and backward compatibility to reduce breaking changes for users. Incorporating responsive designs enables the API to handle new features or shifts in consumer demands effectively. Building APIs with the expectation that they will evolve rather than remain static fosters a more adaptable development process.
Building Personal APIs
The concept of a 'Manual of Me' emphasizes self-awareness and clarity in professional interactions, similar to how APIs operate. Documenting personal work preferences can improve communication and collaboration within teams, making it easier for colleagues to understand each other's working styles. This self-design process encourages reflection on how individual traits contribute to team dynamics. By drawing parallels to API documentation, individuals can create a clearer environment that helps mitigate misunderstandings and improves overall efficiency.
APIs are built, not born, so how do we go about actually building them? Well, it starts with design. In this episode, Kris and Ian are joined by Jamie Tanna to talk about API design. From creating a theory of your API, through building its foundation, to actively prototyping as you design, the panel discusses what they've learned over the years to design high quality APIs. At the end we have unpopular opinions, but we also have a bonus behind the scenes look at howe we create episodes of this podcast. Make sure to stick around until the end of the episode for that content!
Supporters get access to an extended conversation about API design, where we continue some conversation that were cut short, dig more into how the podcast is made, and you'll get to hear Kris argue against using REST! You can get access by signing up at https://fallthrough.fm/subscribe.
