What is API Development?

RapidAPI survey estimates that annual spending on APIs is now $23.6 million. The study also points out that 98% of enterprise leaders consider APIs to be an integral part of their company's digital transformation and that 97% agree that a well-executed API strategy is crucial to ensuring a company's future revenue and revenue growth.

The rapid growth and investments in the development and use of APIs show no sign of slowing down. Foresighted businesses have recognized API development's strategic business opportunity as the need for scalable, flexible software spikes.  

This post will explore the ins and outs of APIs and discuss everything you need to know about successful API development. 

What is an API?

An application programming interface (API) is a software program that facilitates communication between multiple software systems. APIs deliver user requests to service providers and return the response to the user. 

Think of an API as a messenger that allows a seamless exchange of information between servers and applications or the glue that holds servers and programs together.

For example, an API in web development provides the protocols, rules, and requirements that govern how programs can communicate with one another. They can also be used to access databases, create new software applications, or automate processes.

What is the purpose of an API?

Understanding how APIs work is a key step toward building a successful API. APIs are made up of endpoints. API in web development, for instance, is a doorway that allows software programs to communicate with each other, facilitating their mutual ability to authenticate users, validate data, verify information, understand, and respond to client requests. 

For example, if you need an update of the latest stock prices from the stock market, you’d send an API request to the stock exchange’s endpoint, which would return the requested data. 

What is API Development? 

API development is building application programming interfaces (APIs) for software applications to facilitate communication between different services or products.

Types of APIs

there are several different types of APIs to choose from depending on your project’s needs, including the following:

• Open APIs — also known as public APIs, are open source and accessible to everyone without restriction, either freely or via paid subscriptions. They have standardized API endpoints and request/response formats.
• Partner APIs — are not open to the public but are instead available to select developers or organizations who have a specific need for them. To gain access to partner APIs, developers must complete an onboarding process to get access authorization, license, and entitlement. For example, a social media platform may provide an API to a news organization so that the news organization can access data about the platform’s users.
• Internal APIs — are for internal use and are not accessible to the public or third parties. Internal APIs focus on improving team efficiency and communication and promoting service utilization across organizational departments. For example, a DevOps company may use an internal API to allow development and operations departments to communicate with each other.
• Composite APIs — combine data and functions from multiple sources or endpoints to provide a single call interface to a complex system. Composite APIs accelerate the functionality of web interface listeners while speeding up their execution. An example of a composite would be a single interface for a shopping app that combines data from a payment gateway, a mapping service, and an e-commerce platform.

API Development Protocols 

The most popular API development protocols include: 

1. SOAP APIs — Simple Object Access Protocol is an XML-based protocol that allows applications to exchange information over a network and uses HTTP for communication.

2. REST APIs— Representational State Transfer is a simple, stateless protocol often used for web services. REST APIs use HTTP as the communication protocol and must conform to REST architectural constraints.

3. JSON-RPC— JavaScript Object Notation Remote Procedure Call is a simple protocol that uses JSON to encode and transfer data.

4. XML-RPC —Extensible Markup Language Remote Procedure Call is a more complex protocol that communicates via HTTP/HTTPS and uses XML encoding for its data. It uses inbuilt vocabulary to specify the nature of responses and requests.

5. gRPC —Google Remote Procedural Call is a high-performance, open-source RPC framework that can run in any environment. It is used to build scalable, distributed systems and is suitable for public and private clouds. It communicates using HTTP/2 and Transport Layer Security (TLS). 

6. GraphQL — is an API-based query language that fulfills queries with your existing data. It provides complete data description in your API and enables powerful developer tools.

Top Tools for API Development

Some of the most popular API development tools include: 

Apigee: Apigee is Google's API development management tool, used by organizations to modernize legacy apps and facilitate data movement between apps and services. For developers, it helps build connected apps.

APIMatic: is a developer experience platform for API web development. It’s used to create SDKs for APIs on ten different platforms and keep them up-to-date with API updates. APImatic also helps developers convert API descriptions into various formats, including Swagger, RAML, WADL, OAI, IO Docs, API Blueprint, and more.

Dredd: HTTP API testing framework for validating API backend descriptions. It reads API descriptions and verifies, step by step, that the API implementation returns responses that match the documentation.

SoapUI: SoapUI is an open-source, cross-platform solution for automated functional and non-functional testing. It allows for easy and rapid creation and execution of regression, compliance, and load tests for Web APIs.

Sandbox: Provides quick and easy mock RESTful API from API definitions while reducing risks and costs associated with third-party API calling during testing.

Swagger: A widely adopted open-source framework used for API development. 

JMeter: Open-source software for checking the performance of RESTful APIs.

Postman: Allows developers to assess API performance through testing and documentation. 

Features and Best Practices for API Design and Development

According to Postman’s 2022 State of the API Report, one of the biggest challenges to developing APIs is a lack of API design expertise. Here is a checklist of must-have features and practices that will help you develop robust and valuable APIs.  

Modification timestamps/search by criteria

A solid API will let you filter your search for datasets through various criteria or timestamps. That’s to say; users consider any data that has been modified or added since synchronization was last triggered. For this reason, it’s crucial that an API not only allows for searches based on specific criteria but also gives timestamps.

Paging

An effective API should restrict the total quantity of data received at once and can request the frequency with that data. The number of remaining data "pages" should also be communicated to end-users.

Sorting

Paging is only effective if the data being paged is sequentially organized. Otherwise, it's difficult to tell if data has already been received. For this reason, an API should allow for sorting data by the time it was last updated or other relevant conditions.

JSON support / REST

RESTful APIs are perfect for applications that need much communication between them and their users, such as mobile apps, because they are stateless. And unlike SOAP APIs, which can be challenging to use when encountering program failure or interruptions, Rest APIs make it simple for users to retry processes. 

Authorization via OAuth

OAuth is essential for a solid API use case. It's a free, publicly available authorization standard that allows users to perform actions on specific services. OAuth authentication is far faster than API keys at processing requests and more user-friendly, confirming and giving access with a single click.

Error handling

Error management is essential in API development to ensure high levels of usability. You use error handling to determine if a problem originated on the client or server, simplifying debugging for developers. 

Simplicity

A well-designed API offers simplicity. It will be simple to use, with resources and operations that are straightforward to learn and remember for both casual users and developers. 

Good documentation

Well-written documentation is a surefire way to increase an API's user base. It should be written from the lens of the user and include examples and use cases. Good API documentation should also have more than just a list of its methods, endpoints, functions, and response options. 

Consistency and stability

Often, inconsistencies necessitate writing more code and cost-push the API development process. As such, it’s helpful to aim for a uniform, consistent, and intuitive interface by employing standards, specifications, and patterns to define API-wide commonalities. Consistency in terminology and naming is also crucial; always use the same labeling system. 

Discoverability and flexibility

Regardless of prior expertise, any user should be able to pick up the essential functions of using your API with relative ease. It should also be straightforward for developers to identify the specific API services they require. Reliable APIs allow for flexibility by anticipating unexpected outcomes in terms of input and output limits.

Security

Well-developed APIs will have built-in security checks and multiple layers of protection, such as web application firewalls or API gateways. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) may be necessary for APIs to encrypt data at rest and in transit. Input validation and Token-based authentication (username/password or API key) are two further security measures that APIs may utilize to restrict access.

Ready to Start Your API Development Journey?

Given the rapid rise and importance of APIs, virtually all modern applications are either APIs themselves or heavily rely on them. Businesses prioritizing API development at the heart of their products will emerge as market leaders by constantly delivering value to customers and stakeholders. 

As a leading software development firm, Q90 can provide comprehensive, reliable, and custom API development and integration services that meet the needs of a wide range of business project specifications. We can help you develop secure, scalable, and well-documented APIs for your apps, allowing you to connect and interact with clients and partners without friction.

Whether it’s developing API in web development, the cloud, mobile apps, API integration, or more, we provide high-quality software development services at competitive costs.

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