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RESOLVING THE API DEVELOPER’S DILEMMA @ROBDCROWLEY | ROBDCROWLEY

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▪ A TOUR OF API STYLES OVER TIME ▪ CONSTRAINTS AND INDUCED PROPERTIES ▪ MYTH BUSTING ▪ SAMPLE SCENARIOS

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Properties are induced by the set of constraints within an architecture

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CUSTOMER / BUSINESS / PRODUCT REQUIREMENTS

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IMPLICATIONS OF DISTRIBUTED SYSTEM COMPLEXITY, 8 FALLACIES, EVOLUTIONARY REQUIREMENTS

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SYSTEM OF WORK, CONWAY’S LAW, KNOWLEDGE / EXPERTISE

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If an API is mostly actions, maybe it should be RPC. If an API is mostly CRUD and is manipulating related data, maybe it should be REST

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▪ API STYLES ADDRESS DIFFERENT PROBLEM SPACES ▪ RESTISH APIS WOULD MOST LIKELY BE BETTER AS GRAPHQL OR RPC ▪ gRPC IS PERFECT FOR SYCHRONOUS COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN INTERNAL SERVICES

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▪ THERE ARE MANY KINDS OF CACHES: CLIENT, SEVER AND NETWORK ▪ HIGHLY CUSTOMIZABLE APIS BENEFIT LESS FROM HTTP CACHING ▪ IF NETWORK CACHING IS VALUABLE THEN CONSIDER REST ▪ BEST PRACTICES ARE STILL EMERGING FOR GRAPHQL AND gRPC

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GRAPHQL ENABLES EACH CLIENT TO RETRIEVE EXACTLY THE DATA IT REQUIRES IN A SINGLE ROUND TRIP TO THE SERVER

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▪ WITH HTTP/1.X THE COST OF A HANDSHAKE WAS HIGH ▪ HTTP/2 REMOVES THE NEED FOR COMPOUND DOCUMENTS ▪ SERVER PUSH CREATES NEW POSSIBILITIES BUT PROFILE USE CASES THOROUGHLY

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▪ DON’T ADD REQUIRED INPUTS ▪ DON’T REMOVE OUTPUTS OR MAKE THEM OPTIONAL ▪ DON’T CHANGE THE TYPE OF A FIELD ▪ FOLLOW THE ROBUSTNESS PRINCIPLE / POSTEL’S LAW

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With a sufficient number of users of an API, it does not matter what you promise in the contract: all observable behaviours of your system will be depended on by somebody. ’

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Make a system evolvable by paying attention to the interfaces.

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- Front end and back end teams agree on schema. - UI is developed using mocked data based on schema - API is built out with any changes being communicated to front end team - Integrate front and back ends - Ship - Repeat

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▪ IS A TECHNIQUE TO MANAGE BREAKING CHANGES ▪ SHOULD BE A LAST RESORT, PREFER GRACEFUL EVOLUTION ▪ IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR COMMUNICATING WITH USERS ▪ DOES NOT PROTECT AGAINST CONSUMERS DEPENDING ON IMPLICIT INTERFACE BEHAVIOUR

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▪ API DESIGN SKILLS ARE TABLE STAKES IRRESPECTIVE OF STYLE ▪ DESIGING A REST API FOLLOWS OUTSIDE-IN FLOW ▪ GRAPHQL DELAYS THIS MOMENT TO PROFILING QUERIES

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CRUD. SINGLE CLIENT THAT USES ALL FIELDS. USE CASE THAT IS WELL SUITED TO REST.

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AGGREGATE DATA FROM MULTIPLE SOURCES INTO ONE CONVENIENT API. PERFECT USE CASE FOR GRAPHQL.

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SINGLE CLIENT. API IS STATIC AND WELL UNDERSTOOD. USE CASE WELL SUITED TO GRPC (I’M STILL EXPERIMENTING THOUGH!)

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POLYGLOT ENVIRONMENT. GRPC IS PERFECT FOR SYCHRONOUS COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INTERNAL MICROSERVICES.

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