Rest API desing [DSP2017 #02]

Rest API best practices

During creating an http api we should remember about few rules.

1. As a API designers we must know how to name our endpoints. When we have a library which contains users and their books. As a collection we should use a plural form of verb like books and users. Below we can find examples of endpoints for certain activity and strict HTTP methods
• Add new book: /users/{userId}/books/{bookId} POST
• Get book: /users/{userId}/books/{bookId} GET
• Edit book: /users/{userId}/books/{bookId} PUT
• Remove book: /users/{userId}/books/{bookId} DELETE 
2. Status codes
• 200 OK
• 201 Created
• 202 Accepted - request has been accepted but not completed.
• 204 Non content - the request is correct but no content in response body.
• 400 Bad request
• 401 Unauthorized
• 403 Forbidden
• 404 Not found
• 408 Request time out
• 409 - Conflict - duplicate data or invalid data state would occur.
• 500 Internal server error
• 501 Not implemented
• 503 Service unavailable   

I think that above list is the most important when we start with creating API. If we will keep in mind this rules our work will be easiest and more professional :) For further learning please visit the resource materials.

Resources:

• https://github.com/RestCheatSheet/api-cheat-sheet#api-design-cheat-sheet
• http://www.restapitutorial.com/httpstatuscodes.html 
• http://www.restapitutorial.com/resources.html