MEPX
Chapter 4 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What an API is
  2. 2The request
  3. 3The response
  4. 4REST and its alternatives
  5. 5Authentication
  6. 6JSON and data shapes
  7. 7Pagination and filtering
  8. 8Rate limits and retries
  9. 9Versioning and change
  10. 10Calling and debugging APIs

Chapter 4 of 10

REST and its alternatives

Shapes an API can take.

REST in practice

Resources get URLs, actions get HTTP methods, and collections get plural nouns. /orders/42/items is readable, guessable and cacheable, which is most of the value.

  • Keep verbs out of paths: POST /orders, not /createOrder.
  • Nest only one level deep. Deeper hierarchies become unusable.

The others

GraphQL lets the client ask for exactly the fields it wants, at the cost of a more complicated server. gRPC is compact and fast between services. Both solve real problems that REST handles awkwardly.