| By Scott Morrison |
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| April 25, 2012 05:15 AM EDT |
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We have worked with many APIs here at Layer 7. And over time we’ve seen it all, ranging from the good to the bad. We even see the downright ugly. Now a good API is a beautiful thing; it encourages innovation, abstracts appropriately, and is designed with enough forethought that nobody needs to change it down the road. Resiliency is a good quality in an API. APIs are a little like cockroaches in that they will likely outlive the human race.
But what about the other ones? The ugly and bad ones? This is where developers could use some guidance.
Truth is, good API design isn’t really hard, but it’s not easy. One thing I point people to is Leonard Richardson’s Maturity Model for REST, which Martin Fowler explores in his blog. Now I’m not a REST purist by any means—truth is I’m as guilty of quick-and-dirty HTTP tunneling hacks as the next guy—but when you see the maturity phases laid out so succinctly, you can’t help but be inspired to move toward more “resourceful” thinking and maybe even learn to love HATEOS. Part of good API design is knowing what you should aspire to, and Richardson’s model is much more concise and accessible than Fielding’s thesis.
Another good source of advice is Joshua Bloch’s superb Google Tech Talk How to Design A Good API and Why it Matters. Bloch wrote what is arguably the most important book about Java ever written, and indeed his talk is about APIs using Java as the model. But don’t let that deter you; virtually everything Bloch discusses is as relevant to RESTful JSON-style APIs as it is to Java. Follow his advice, transpose it to you language of choice, and frame it with an understanding of where you want to land in the maturity model for REST, and you will end the day with great APIs.
K. Scott Morrison is the Chief Technology Officer and Chief Architect at Layer 7 Technologies, where he is leading a team developing the next generation of security infrastructure for cloud computing and SOA. An architect and developer of highly scalable, enterprise systems for over 20 years, Scott has extensive experience across industry sectors as diverse as health, travel and transportation, and financial services. He has been a Director of Architecture and Technology at Infowave Software, a leading maker of wireless security and acceleration software for mobile devices, and was a senior architect at IBM. Before shifting to the private sector, Scott was with the world-renowned medical research program of the University of British Columbia, studying neurodegenerative disorders using medical imaging technology.
Scott is a dynamic, entertaining and highly sought-after speaker. His quotes appear regularly in the media, from the New York Times, to the Huffington Post and the Register. Scott has published over 50 book chapters, magazine articles, and papers in medical, physics, and engineering journals. His work has been acknowledged in the New England Journal of Medicine, and he has published in journals as diverse as the IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow, and Neurology. He is the co-author of the graduate text Cloud Computing, Principles, Systems and Applications published by Springer, and is on the editorial board of Springer’s new Journal of Cloud Computing Advances, Systems and Applications (JoCCASA). He co-authored both Java Web Services Unleashed and Professional JMS. Scott is an editor of the WS-I Basic Security Profile (BSP), and is co-author of the original WS-Federation specification. He is a recent co-author of the Cloud Security Alliance’s Security Guidance for Critical Areas of Focus in Cloud Computing, and an author of that organization’s Top Threats to Cloud Computing research. Scott was recently a featured speaker for the Privacy Commission of Canada’s public consultation into the privacy implications of cloud computing. He has even lent his expertise to the film and television industry, consulting on a number of features including the X-Files. Scott’s current interests are in cloud computing, Web services security, enterprise architecture and secure mobile computing—and of course, his wife and two great kids.
Layer 7 Technologies: http://www.layer7tech.com
Scott's linkedIn profile.
Twitter: @KScottMorrison
Syscon blog: http://scottmorrison.sys-con.com
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