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Restful API

REST (REpresentational State Transfer) APIs enable communication between software applications using HTTP requests, typically in JSON format. They are characterized by stateless interactions and a uniform interface, offering advantages like scalability, flexibility, and platform independence, but also face challenges such as data overfetching, security concerns, and versioning complexities. REST APIs are commonly used for web-based applications and support various methods for data manipulation, corresponding to CRUD operations.

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20 views10 pages

Restful API

REST (REpresentational State Transfer) APIs enable communication between software applications using HTTP requests, typically in JSON format. They are characterized by stateless interactions and a uniform interface, offering advantages like scalability, flexibility, and platform independence, but also face challenges such as data overfetching, security concerns, and versioning complexities. REST APIs are commonly used for web-based applications and support various methods for data manipulation, corresponding to CRUD operations.

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• REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer.

• API is a mechanism that allows different software applications to


communicate with each other over the internet or local network.
• REST APIs follow specific rules and standards that enable applications and
users to use HTTP requests to access and use data.
• The data sent and received by a REST API is generally in the JSON
(JavaScript Object Notation) format.
• Data sent is a request, and the data received from the API call is called
the response. Two main characteristics of RESTful APIs include:
– Stateless Interactions: Each request from a client to a server must contain all
the information needed to understand and process the request. The server
does not store any session information about the client.
– Uniform Interface: A REST API is designed to use standard HTTP methods and
should be easy for any developer familiar with HTTP.
Why REST API
 Scalability: Due to their stateless nature, REST APIs can handle
multiple types of calls, return different data formats, and even
change structurally with the correct implementation of
hypermedia.
 Flexibility and Portability: Data is not tied to resources or
methods, allowing more flexibility in its representation. This
makes REST APIs suitable for different types of applications.
 Independence: The separation between client and server
allows for development across various parts of an application
to coincide with less dependency on each other.
 light weight, highly scalable and maintainable and are very
commonly used to create APIs for web-based applications.
Principles RESTful Architecture
Six guiding principles RESTful architecture are:
RESTful API Caching
REST API Methods
 GET: This API method requests data from a specified resource. It should
only retrieve data and should have no other effect.
 POST: This API method sends data to the server for creation. It is often
used when uploading a file or submitting a completed web form.
 PUT: This API method updates all current representations of the target
resource with the uploaded content.
 DELETE: As the name suggests, this method removes/deletes a specified
resource.
 HEAD: Similar to GET, this method only transfers the status line and the
header section.
 PATCH: This method applies partial modifications to a resource.

Each method corresponds to the CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete)


operations in database management.
Advantages of REST API
 Simplicity and Flexibility
 Platform Independence
 RESt APIs are also performant and efficient since responses
can be effectively cached to minimize data transfers.
Challenges REST APIs
 The statelessness of REST can lead to larger requests since all
necessary data must be included in each request. This also
creates issues like:
 Data Overfetching and Underfetching, which can impact performance, as
multiple requests may be needed to gather all data, or excessive data may be
returned unnecessarily.
 Security concerns are a potential challenge, requiring proper
implementation of authentication and data transfer security
practices to keep data secure.
 versioning of REST APIs can be complex, with changes
potentially breaking backward compatibility.
 The lack of a strict standard in REST implementation can lead
to inconsistencies across different APIs
API Analytics and Monetization
 Live API traffic
 Time-series reports inspecting usage
 Conversion funnels
 Retention reports

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