HTTP API Design for iOS Applications

Transcript

1. HTTP API
   Design
   for iOS Applications
   

   View Slide

2. @vanstee
   Big Nerd Ranch
   

   View Slide

3. • Modeling Resources
   • Tools: Server and Client
   • Real world problems
   • Future
   

   View Slide

4. Modeling
   Resources
   

   View Slide

5. The key abstraction
   of information in
   REST is a resource.
   

   View Slide

6. re·source /ˈrēˌsôrs/
   A resource is a conceptual
   mapping to a set of entities,
   not the entity that
   corresponds to the mapping
   at any particular point in time.
   

   View Slide

7. Resources are not
   just database records
   

   View Slide

8. Resources are the nouns.
   HTTP methods are the verbs.
   URIs are the identifiers.
   Media types are the representations.
   

   View Slide

9. But what about transactions?
   searches?
   complex actions?
   

   View Slide

10. Don’t do this:
    POST /accounts/1/transfer/500.00/to/2
    Try this instead:
    POST /transactions
    { “from”: 1, “to”: 2, “amount”: 500.00 }
    

    View Slide

11. Tools
    

    View Slide

12. Server-side
    • Rails
    • Active Model Serializers
    • Custom Responders
    • rack-test and json_spec
    

    View Slide

13. Client-side
    • AFNetworking
    • RestKit (if you really need it)
    • VCRURLConnection and
    mitmproxy
    

    View Slide

14. Real
    World
    Problems
    

    View Slide

15. Versioning
    Don’t do this:
    POST /v1/users/1
    Try this instead:
    POST /users/1
    Accept: application/json; version=1.0
    

    View Slide

16. Authentication
    • OAuth2 with API routes for token
    generation
    • NSURLConnection supports
    cookies
    • Basic Authentication over HTTPS*
    

    View Slide

17. Caching
    • NSURLCache has support for
    Cache-Control and ETags
    • AFNetworking supports this by
    default
    • Rails gives you these for free
    

    View Slide

18. Smarter Requests
    • Side loading associated
    resources
    • HTTP Pipelining for GET, HEAD,
    PUT, and DELETE requests
    • HTTP compression
    

    View Slide

19. Future
    

    View Slide

20. HTTP 2.0
    • Based on SPDY
    • Multiplexing
    • Server Push
    • Better compression
    

    View Slide

21. JSON API
    • Standard hypermedia type
    • Always namespaced
    • Always returns collections for
    easy parsing
    • Support for batch operations
    

    View Slide

22. JSON Patch
    • Standard hypermedia type for
    updating records
    • Easily handle associations
    • Send minimal amount of
    information
    

    View Slide

23. Thanks
    blog.steveklabnik.com
    designinghypermediaapis.com
    afnetworking.com
    jsonapi.org
    

    View Slide