Creating Solid APIs

Presented at DjangoCon Europe 2018

Creating APIs that other developers love to use isn't trivial. I'll share some tips and best practices.

Transcript

1. Creating Solid APIs DjangoCon Europe 2018 ⋅Rivo Laks 2018-05-23
2. Background
3. What is an API?
4. What is an API? application programming interface
5. What is an API? application programming interface application programmer interface
6. What is an API? application programming interface application programmer interface API is user interface for developers
7. What Makes an API Good?
8. What Makes an API Good? Documentation
9. What Makes an API Good? Documentation Familiarity
10. What Makes an API Good? Documentation Familiarity Lack of friction
11. Documentation Often overlooked
12. Documentation Often overlooked Gives the rst impression
13. Documentation Often overlooked Gives the rst impression The e ort is worth it!
14. Creating Awesome Docs
15. What Should Go In There?
16. What Should Go In There? How do I access it?
17. What Should Go In There? How do I access it? Do I need developer account?
18. What Should Go In There? How do I access it? Do I need developer account? Root URL, etc
19. What Should Go In There? How do I access it? Do I need developer account? Root URL, etc Authentication info
20. What Should Go In There? General encodings, formats, etc
21. What Should Go In There? General encodings, formats, etc Pagination, versioning, etc
22. What Should Go In There? General encodings, formats, etc Pagination, versioning, etc Common errors
23. What Should Go In There? General encodings, formats, etc Pagination, versioning, etc Common errors Code for getting started
24. The Endpoints
25. The Endpoints URL & operations
26. The Endpoints URL & operations Request/response data
27. The Endpoints URL & operations Request/response data Optional parameters
28. The Endpoints URL & operations Request/response data Optional parameters Permissions etc
29. Keep it Fresh!
30. Keep it Fresh! Obsolete docs are the worst
31. Keep it Fresh! Obsolete docs are the worst Always autogenerate!
32. Keep it Fresh! Obsolete docs are the worst Always autogenerate! Usually code » schema » docs
33. Schema & Autogeneration
34. Schema & Autogeneration OpenAPI, Swagger, etc
35. Schema & Autogeneration OpenAPI, Swagger, etc Use your tools
36. Schema & Autogeneration OpenAPI, Swagger, etc Use your tools Combine docs & code examples
37. Schema & Autogeneration OpenAPI, Swagger, etc Use your tools Combine docs & code examples Client libs autogeneration
38. Standardize!
39. JSON API http://jsonapi.org/ one potential standard to use
40. JSON API http://jsonapi.org/ one potential standard to use GraphQL is another option
41. Standardize Structure
42. Standardize Structure Responses have predictable, familiar structure
43. GET https://example.com/api/v1/projects { "links": { "next": "https://example.com/api/v1/projects?cursor=cD0yMDE4L", "prev": null }, "data": [...], "included": [...] }
44. "data": [ { "type": "project", "id": "289", "links": { "self": "https://example.com/api/v1/projects/289" }, "attributes": { "created": "2018-04-28T22:52:08.690486Z", "name": "Allison-Patterson", "description": "aggregate collaborative models" }, "relationships": {...} }, ... ],
45. "data": [{ ... "relationships": { "created_by": { "data": { "type": "user", "id": "199" } }, "epics": { "data": [ { "type": "epic", "id": "3101" } ], } } }, ... ],
46. "included": [ { "type": "epic", "id": "3101", "attributes": { "created": "2018-04-28T22:50:45.885691Z", "name": "Ergonomic background extranet" }, "links": { "self": "https://example.com/api/v1/epics/3101" } }, { "type": "user", "id": "199", "attributes": {...} } ]
47. Impressions?
48. Flexibility Con gurable elds: GET https://example.com/api/v1/projects GET https://example.com/api/v1/projects \ ?included=comments GET https://example.com/api/v1/projects \ ?included=comments&fields[project]=name,comments
49. Pagination List responses have next / prev links { "links": { "next": "https://example.com/api/v1/projects?cursor=cD0yMDE4L", "prev": null }, "data": [...], }
50. Pagination List responses have next / prev links { "links": { "next": "https://example.com/api/v1/projects?cursor=cD0yMDE4L", "prev": null }, "data": [...], } Cursor-base pagination FTW (but YMMV)
51. There is More ... Filtering Ordering
52. Errors
53. Errors POST https://example.com/api/v1/projects { "errors": [ { "title": "Invalid Attribute", "detail": "Name must contain at least three letters.", "source": { "pointer": "/data/attributes/name" }, "status": "422" } ] }
54. Special Cases For when you have LOTS of data
55. Special Cases For when you have LOTS of data out-of-band approach
56. GET https://example.com/api/v1/datasets/123 { "data": { "type": "dataset", "id": "123", "attributes": { "name": "CIFAR10 dataset", }, "links": { "data_tgz": "https://www.cs.toronto.edu/~kriz/cifar-10-python.tar.gz", "self": "https://example.com/api/v1/datasets/123" } } }
57. Standardization Matters the speci c standard isn't that important GraphQL, etc are also good options
58. Authentication & Authorization
59. Token Authentication Clients send HTTP header, ala Authorization: Token 9944b09199c62bcf9418
60. OAuth 2.0
61. OAuth 2.0 For creating platforms
62. OAuth 2.0 For creating platforms Complex, but solves many issues
63. OAuth 2.0 For creating platforms Complex, but solves many issues Many packages, e.g. Django OAuth Toolkit, OAuthLib
64. Versioning
65. Versioning Schemes
66. Versioning Schemes AcceptHeaderVersioning (DRF) GET /projects HTTP/1.0 Accept: application/json; version=1.0
67. Versioning Schemes AcceptHeaderVersioning (DRF) GET /projects HTTP/1.0 Accept: application/json; version=1.0 URLPathVersioning (DRF) GET /v1/projects HTTP/1.0 Accept: application/json
68. Versioning Schemes Cont. Integers ( v1 ) vs dates ( 2018-05-23 )?
69. Versioning Schemes Cont. Integers ( v1 ) vs dates ( 2018-05-23 )? Dates are less emotional
70. Versioning Schemes Cont. Integers ( v1 ) vs dates ( 2018-05-23 )? Dates are less emotional Make upgrades easy
71. Version Transformers
72. Version Transformers » » Requests into newer version » » Core code is for latest version « « Responses into older version « «
73. Version Transformers » » Requests into newer version » » Core code is for latest version « « Responses into older version « « Won't work for big, breaking changes
74. tg-apicore
75. Thorgate API Core pip install tg-apicore Addon for Django REST Framework
76. Thorgate API Core pip install tg-apicore Addon for Django REST Framework Documentation generation Pre-con gured Viewset/serializer utils
77. Client's Perspective
78. The Scenario Let's try speech recognition...
79. The Scenario Let's try speech recognition... ... using AWS and GCP
80. Getting Started Documentation
81. Getting Started Documentation Quite easy to nd A bit overwhelming
82. Getting Started Documentation Quite easy to nd A bit overwhelming Code examples
83. Comprehensive Clients Install Python client GCP: google-cloud package AWS: boto3 package
84. Comprehensive Clients Install Python client GCP: google-cloud package AWS: boto3 package Authenticate
85. Comprehensive Clients Install Python client GCP: google-cloud package AWS: boto3 package Authenticate Thorough docs
86. Amazon import boto3 client = boto3.client('transcribe') response = client.start_transcription_job(...)
87. Amazon import boto3 client = boto3.client('transcribe') response = client.start_transcription_job(...) Google from google.cloud import speech client = speech.SpeechClient() results = client.recognize(...)
88. In Summary Invest in documentation Embrace standards (e.g. JSON API) Use automation Reduce friction
89. Thanks! Rivo Laks ⋅ @rivolaks ⋅ rivolaks.com Lead Engineer at Thorgate ⋅ thorgate.eu API framework for Django/DRF ⋅ tg-apicore (WIP)