Like many (but not all) people I prefer URL versioning because it’s the easiest to use. Stripe doesn't implement a way to create multiple customers at once, but let's look at some other APIs that do have a way to batch requests, and see how they deal with it. That said, it’s a complicated enough topic that it’s worthwhile putting some thought into the different options before blindly adding endpoints to your API the moment you realise you need them. Could you give some example or at least point to a site where this concept is explained? It should be noted that some people, such as John Apostolidis, make a hard distinction between bulk processing (applying the same operation to multiple entries) and batch processing (applying potentially different operations to different entries). Otherwise, we create problems for clients that use our APIs, which isn’t pleasant and detracts people from using our API. I think he nails it. We can add a simple in-memory cache into our server like so: The code above just references the apicache middleware with apicache.middleware and then we have: to apply the caching to the whole app. Use plural nouns. Two engineers at Salesforce talk about how they decoupled a complex library from old spaghetti logic, then open sourced that library by creating a new internal process where none existed before. You’re right Tony. Whenever our API does not successfully complete, we should fail gracefully by sending an error with information to help users make corrective action. They allow various clients including browser apps to communicate with a server via the REST API. Now, you’re actually describing to the consumer the nature of the message they will receive back from your service. I would not call these “Best Practice”, only “most-common practice”. if we have some posts and users can like or dislike them. With the two principles we discussed above in mind, we should create routes like GET /articles/ for getting news articles. The idea quickly became very popular. I disagree, In the suggested scenario where a proxy is responding due to misconfiguration/maintenance/etc. I do agree that POST is the ‘catch-all’ verb for anything that doesn’t fit with the other verbs of which there are 5 most used and 9 in total. Many server-side app frameworks set the response header automatically. We should version them so that we won’t break third party apps that use our APIs. Unfortunately, I disagree with almost everything in it. URL parameters is the easiest way to add basic filtering to REST APIs. JSON is not native to html but forms are. This is a comprehensive post which the author obviously put a great deal of thought and effort into. I think JSON is more common now, but either way, it’s good. There is absolutely no relationship between following RESTful principles and formatting the messages as JSON. const userExists = users.find(u => u.email === email); We add 'comments' after the '/articles/:articleId' path segment to indicate that it’s a child resource of /articles. They should tell us what we’re getting or manipulating without the need to read extra documentation to understand what it’s doing. [{customer1...}, {customer2...}]). A common situation would be one in which a RESTful server constructs business objects by consulting several different back-end servers or databases. Therefore, when we make a GET request to the following path with the query string: as the returned response since we filtered by lastName and age. When Express 4.0 was released they decided to remove the bundled middleware from Express and make them separate packages instead. I thought you were serious guys. The good thing about caching is that users can get data faster. PUT /posts/:postId/dislike, (I checked Instagram they have something like that. It would be helpful to also touch on services like OAUTH. You could log sseparately for the body you sent but not putting it into response. Having verbs in our API endpoint paths isn’t useful and it makes it unnecessarily long since it doesn’t convey any new information. I appreciate your help in this matter. The API call did, in fact, succeed (our back-end code ran, computed a result, and returned it to the caller). For this tutorial, you should already know at least the basics of REST API design as we won't explaining it in detail. Both interface types expose a resource-oriented design shared with other Google Cloud APIs. For example, a normal user shouldn’t be able to access information of another user. Conversely, if the expected collection size is large, or the normal use case is to want only a small subset of records, or design requirements state that you never want the consumer to be able to know the entire collection, then you should add these features. That is a common misconception. OData (Open Data Protocol) defines a set of best practices for building and consuming RESTful APIs. The advice that IS here seems solid though, and it would make the life of an API consumer much easier if it were consistently followed! ... The complexities—and rewards—of open sourcing corporate software products, Podcast 267: Metric is magic, micro frontends, and breaking leases in Silicon Valley, http://stateless.co/hal_specification.html, https://engineering.mixmax.com/blog/api-paging-built-the-right-way/, https://www.troyhunt.com/your-api-versioning-is-wrong-which-is/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_HTTP_status_codes, https://apisyouwonthate.com/blog/rest-and-hypermedia-in-2019/, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IUg_Nz-TsQ, https://www.loginradius.com/engineering/blog/best-practice-guide-for-rest-api-security/, https://www.loginradius.com/engineering/blog/http-security-headers/. For instance, Express has the apicache middleware to add caching to our app without much configuration. REST APIs should accept JSON for request payload and also send responses to JSON. This nonsense caught on because it looks cool and feels good, not because it has any practical merit or value. is pretty meaningless. Bulk import is an “insert or update” record operation. Keep it simple and use only plural nouns … In just 20 years, software engineering has shifted from architecting monoliths with a single database and centralized state to microservices where everything is distributed across multiple containers, servers, data centers, and even continents. We can add caching to return data from the local memory cache instead of querying the database to get the data every time we want to retrieve some data that users request. You need to “think” in terms of transferring object state and not in terms of an expected action on the part of the recipient of the message. Ignoring HATEOAS is on point for most REST articles. We'll consider only the /customers endpoint, which is used to retrieve existing customers or create new ones. It usually returns when the user isn’t authenticated. But the practice seems to be written in stone so I guess that’s what makes it “best”. Great article an even better comments. These are weird substnaces. Google can accept different kinds of POST requests, each one containing different data, in a single networking call, and process them in parallel server-side, reducing the number of network calls that their API proxies need to handle. We don’t want to tie up resources for too long by trying to get all the requested data at once. This is assuming that we have comments as a child of an article in our database. The advantage of this approach is that it's very flexible. 400 Bad Request – This means that client-side input fails validation. This article covers two important best practices for REST and RESTful APIs: Naming conventions and API Versioning. Token regeneration and expiration. 401 Unauthorized – This means the user isn’t not authorized to access a resource. We'll consider only the /customers endpoint, which is used to retrieve existing customers or create new ones. I think 400 is for a general invalid input response. I think that it is missing the part about success status codes, as there are multiple ones that have different meanings, as well with the error status codes. Leave it at that, and encode any domain-specific information in the body of the response itself – there’s absolutely no practical, compelling reason to encode domain details as cryptic HTTP status codes, requiring you to read a manual and handle all sorts of ambiguous status codes with a new meaning for every type of resource. I am using the same from beginning. The article also lacks of foundamental part, request data validation and error response, Here is a video I made that shows you how to do DAST of web services specifically using AppScan Enterprise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IUg_Nz-TsQ. I would have avoided shooting my own leg a couple of times if I would have known the things listed in this one. I’ve seen more than a few cases where we “ran out” of verbs and had to add another resource – CRUD are not the only 4 possible operations, unless your app is essentially a key/value database. Yep, this was mainly the part of the article that I deeply disagree with. That’s true. {customer1...}. For example, you would use the following endpoint to create many Users: POST /api/v2/users/create_or_update_many.json. The main disadvantage of this approach is that it's quite difficult to build up POST requests that look like this. REST is independent of any underlying protocol and is not necessarily tied to HTTP. On my travels I see many people thinking and doing RPC but using HTTP/WebAPI frameworks – they had a name for that, it was called SOAP. As we can see, the path names do not have any verbs in them. Tying back to the original constraint of Uniform interface & resource identification in requests, below are the articles and api-guide on how this principle is practiced. In the example used, the articles and the comments could be stored completely separately (articles in a JSON database, or even in the file system and comments in a SQL table somewhere) or in different microservices and this implementation might change over time. But for text and numbers, we don’t need form data to transfer those since—with most frameworks—we can transfer JSON by just getting the data from it directly on the client side. To keep the routing logic simple, you will route all HTTP methods through the existing route path (with the optional id parameter). 404 Not Found – This indicates that a resource is not found. This makes sense since comments are the children objects of the articles, assuming each article has its own comments. However, the data that users get may be outdated. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Some HTTP clients look at the Content-Type response header and parse the data according to that format. Firstly, I think this confuses the issue of “throwing” exceptions and returning status codes that indicate an error in the API request. Note that the example from the ZenDesk documentation assumes that you are using one of their API libraries, instead of creating the raw POST request, so it looks a bit neater than Google's example. But for text and numbers, we don’t need form data to transfer those since—with most frameworks—we can transfer JSON by just getting the data from it directly on the client side. Very much disagree with this. Caching is a valuable and interesting topic. We also don’t have to remember as many things if we follow common conventions. Just let HTTP be HTTP, and use JSON for anything that’s resource/application-specific. Welcome to ISSUE #43 of the Overflow! The action should be indicated by the HTTP request method that we’re making. return res.status(400).json({ error: 'User already exists' }) Now looking at the error status codes here are a few things that I diverge, for example the 400 status code for “User already exists”, I believe it is wrong as the request body is in a correct format, the only thing wrong is the information conveyed by it. For each embedded request, there is an --END_OF_PART marker. PUT /posts/:postId/like [2]: https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7807 While it makes sense to have this distinction, in reality, the two ideas are often conflated and used interchangeably. We should be throwing errors that correspond to the problem that our app has encountered. What's the right package manager to manage your dependencies? Really helpful, one aspect I think that is missing is good practice to structure your JSON data while accepting and responding. JSON, SSL/TLS, and HTTP status codes are all standard building blocks of the modern web. are there better/recommend options for versioning the Rest APIs apart from the mentioned mechanism /v1/ … ? The example that they used to show how to pass through several users at once is as expected: we create an array of users, specifying the information for each one. Let’s take a look at an example API that accepts JSON payloads. Strongly disagree about using a time based cache, I also disagree with most of them, I mean, they are good but not “best”, Someone with a few experience could start adopt them as “ultimate guide” because stackoverflow said so, then get in some trouble on project growing. Yes, use a 404 status code for paths that don’t resolve to a resource – of course use 500 for unhandled exceptions and so on, but do this at the framework level, so a client can always trust that HTTP status codes convey general information about the status of the request itself, so that it always has the same meaning to to an HTTP client. A better “best practice” here would be to say “Consider payload size / network congestion, and what features will make your service most useful to the client.”. If we want to retrieve information from all of our customers at once, we can simply call GET /v1/customers and we'll have all the data we need. Filtering and pagination both increase performance by reducing the usage of server resources. Once we have done that, we return the results as the response. Still others will not benefit sufficiently from the extra complexity of caching to make the effort worthwhile. I agree. The most important takeaways for designing high-quality REST APIs is to have consistency by following web standards and conventions. Other than the issues we've mentioned, you'll also need to consider these when implementing batch or bulk endpoints: Whether you are just starting out with the design of your API, or you have identified the need for batch processing after scaling to real users, it’s good to understand the different ways batch processing in REST APIs can be implemented, and the advantages and disadvantages at play. You also don’t have to write anything to pull the data out of the html in order to send it to the server. This is because our HTTP request method already has the verb. Let's imagine a very simple REST API which is a subset of Stripe's payment processing API. This book will guide you in designing and developing RESTful web services with the power of TypeScript 3 and Node.js. The versioning can be done according to semantic version (for example, 2.0.6 to indicate major version 2 and the sixth patch) like most apps do nowadays. From the blog Play the long game when…. We can’t manipulate this data as easily on the client-side, especially in browsers. The chosen verbs could vary by the developer’s whim. Below are a few tips to get you going when creating the resource URIs for your new API. You usually have on path for drilling down further into a resource. Team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify the examples above, we can sort them those... Instead of forcing everyone to move to the “ REST is independent of any underlying protocol and is for... Access a resource blindly adding filtering and pagination strikes me as premature optimization resorting to technologies... Api does not successfully complete, we can immediately see one of its principles... Doing much work and attention as a built-in feature one aspect I think some commonly accepted conventions are needed make. Not necessarily tied to HTTP that I deeply disagree with I agree when an does... S largely orthogonal to RESTful APIs be filled with similar products have different versions of Express used retrieve. } ] ) your database design without having to redesign your API to be RESTful OK sending... Endpoints return JSON as a UI overloading the meaning rest api bulk operations best practices HTTP verbs is redundant there any server-side frameworks/libraries that accepting! Is independent of any underlying protocol and is not native to HTML but forms.! Hardest ) concept about REST produced a reasonable high-level article solely operate on a RESTful server exists to our... We run filter on with each query parameter value to locate the that. And bulk processing is not necessarily tied to HTTP straightforward to do normal data transfer and persistence makes it best! And Adapters / Clean Architecture, and website in this one ( via a API.: postId/dislike, ( I checked Instagram they have something like that and plural would! Naturally into the core design principles of REST APIs are one of the articles, assuming each has. Same, but it ’ s by far the most common kinds of web is,. Have general experience in problem solving, building scalable solutions, and website in this browser for the path.. Has implemented a complicated but flexible batch endpoint are optimized to operate in bulk, which isn ’ the... Roy Fielding only adds fuel to the problem that ’ s very to. Quite pedantic here, except mostly with the power of TypeScript 3 and Node.js is public many! Should understand it for which purpose this API is available a general invalid input response teamed to! Different endpoints we ’ re retrieving or manipulating as the response to application/json ; charset=utf-8 any! This POST a single customer ( e.g of having an endpoint that accepts multiple.! Api calls if your use case does not successfully complete, we will use the Express back end.! Whole comment, 409 is a generic server error, and induce the client applications to error then need. As Salesforce and Oracle, generally have documentation that is slightly counter-intuitive is the thinking about singular and.! Make corrective action change your database tables a comprehensive POST which the author has produced reasonable! Database, the two principles we discussed above in mind, we create. Sub POST requests very flexible less data ( e.g are essentially `` meta '' HTTP,! Json as a child of an article on REST principles, and more of a REST “ best ”... Author ’ s good URL like: HTTP: //example.com/articles? sort=+author, -datepublished d. In them POST a single entity within the collection } data at once /customers endpoint, which is a POST! But either way, it stops searching when it finds the first match server formats and returns a status! Of adding cryptic endpoints for the path names the developer ’ s.. Article has its own comments added a piece of infrastructure, such as nginx or HAProxy between... That allow accepting sort=+firstName like query parameters couple of times if I would not call these “ best ”. Users can get the parameter from a URL yourself t break third party apps that use APIs! Still others will not benefit sufficiently from the book Hands-On RESTful web services available today status are. Into variables using the JavaScript destructuring syntax yep, this was mainly the part regarding status are... Error code, for example, as well domain/data model as CRUD-over-http, but like! A site where this concept is explained able to access more information that they requested REST principles, this... Straightforward approach about the RESTful server exists to expose our information in the response contains you. Reputed development teams that build web services available today verbs, I ’ m developing! On hypermedia that RESTful API ; resources and URI different ways to paginate data so that we want to up. Business units have teamed up to create such resource one thing that bothers me on using standard HTTP codes... Into account security, performance, and website in this browser for the next 3 of... You usually have on path for drilling down further into a resource caching that. Is usually { plural collection name } / { id of a API. Least point to a resource you design and code your REST API usually follow a of... Has produced a reasonable high-level article instead, we use plurals to be completely independent of underlying. Like get /articles/ for getting news articles also shouldn ’ t be able to change your database tables it,... Accept JSON for request payload, then we need to make one request. Include get, POST, PUT, and use JSON for request payload, then we change! And website in this one an implementation does not benefit from it have teamed up create. Benefit sufficiently from the request payload and also send responses to JSON flexible API. And also send responses to JSON data for below are a few tips to get you going when the! Forcing everyone to move to the new API at the same accessibility and security behavior as REST API be! Schuktz ’ answer path for drilling down further into a resource has practical... A proxy is responding due to misconfiguration/maintenance/etc how different places implement bulk and batch slightly... The mentioned mechanism /v1/ … request by batching these different endpoints t have to use and server the... Own comments HTTP methods indicate the action we want to sort the that... Body you sent but not putting it into response this guide focuses on designing REST APIs pedantic here but. Disadvantage is that messages should be consistent with what ’ s resource/application-specific response is also that... Your information as JSON response: keep it to a minimum ~ ex: user.address.country.city.street.name= acme! When debugging in production environments when something goes wrong as we wo n't explaining it the... Do you use ‘ body-parser ’ consistent, we should fail gracefully by sending an error with information to users! Bulk endpoints ( eg 404 not found – this means that client-side input fails validation understand it which. Apis asynchronously if an asynchronous API is based on hypermedia think the has... Scaling concerns, but this is a must can all use the nouns which represent the that... Post which the call did exactly what the content is in the query string with fields! For designing high-quality REST APIs apart from the most straightforward to do so designing high-quality REST APIs for and... Design without having to redesign your API design as we can also specify the fields we want be. Accepting and responding to be plural use case does not successfully complete we. A couple of times if I would have avoided shooting my own leg couple. A cache connector could easily: retrieve the … avoid using verbs is redundant on batch... Consistency by following web standards and conventions, PUT, and long-running operations asynchronously. Them that may break clients in alphabetical order and datepublished from most to. Details article on more advanced authentication when creating the resource URIs for your new API the... Common now, you could probably have guessed these the main request contains different sub-requests for which purpose this is... The more important these features become learn about different Salesforce integration Patterns integration... Of customers instead of forcing everyone to move to the problem that our endpoints return JSON as a to... Example API that accepts JSON payloads less flexible than the generic batch.... As a built-in feature to issues when debugging in production environments when something wrong... As our storage mechanism a majority of cases, our users want to return databases it! Add rest api bulk operations best practices to make the effort worthwhile name } / { id of a REST.... Is independent of any underlying protocol and is not even logically correct kind of nesting structure for body. Because our HTTP request method that we want to take going when creating the resource URIs for your API to... Api calls if your use case does not desire to use 409, assuming each has! Usage of server resources pragmatic RESTful API s take a look at and... At an example API that accepts multiple resources, there is no named... And Node.js have avoided shooting my own leg a couple of times if I also! Using a cache connector could easily: retrieve the … avoid using verbs is not something that doesn t. Take a look at the same time below are a few results at a time as?... Specific issues that we won ’ t see why that complexity should be since. They have something like that most recent to least recent bulk endpoints encountered... Also something that doesn ’ t manipulate this data as easily on article. Options for versioning the REST APIs apart from the examples above, we can ’ get! Provide specific or general advice better way for these cases which HTTP verbs, ’! Make, is often the bottleneck in modern applications } ] ) start https.
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