Olaf Zimmermann - Patterns for API Design: Simplifying Integration with Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges

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APIs are eating the world. Organizations and collaborations are depending more and more on APIs. For all these APIs to be designed, using patterns is a well-established way of tackling design challenges. Patterns for API Design helps practitioners to design their APIs more effectively: They can focus on designing their application domain while standard design issues are solved with patterns. If youre working in the API space, this book will change how you design APIs and how you look at APIs.

Erik Wilde, Catalyst at Axway

The authors have captured design patterns across the API lifecycle, from definition to design, in an approachable way. Whether you have designed dozens of web APIs or you are just starting out, this book is a valuable resource to drive consistency and overcome any design challenge you may face. I highly recommend this book!

James Higginbotham
Author of Principles of Web API Design: Delivering value with APIs and
Microservices and Executive API Consultant, LaunchAny

APIs are everywhere in todays software development landscape. API design looks easy but, as anyone who has suffered a poorly designed API will attest, it is a difficult skill to master and much subtler and more complex than it initially appears. In this book, the authors have used their long experience and years of research work to create a structured body of knowledge about API design. It will help you to understand the underlying concepts needed to create great APIs and provides a practical set of patterns that you can use when creating your own APIs. It is recommended for anyone involved in the design, building, or testing of modern software systems.

Eoin Woods, CTO, Endava

Application programming interfaces (API) are among the top priority elements to help manage many of the trade-offs involved in system design, in particular distributed systems, which increasingly dominate our software ecosystem. In my experience, this book removes the complexities in understanding and designing APIs with concepts accessible to both practicing engineers and those who are just starting their software engineering and architecting journey. All who aspire to play a key role in system design should understand the API design concepts and patterns presented in this book.

Ipek Ozkaya
Technical Director, Engineering Intelligence Software System
Software Solutions Division
Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute
Editor-in-Chief 20192023 IEEE Software Magazine

It is my belief that we are entering into an era where API-first design will become the dominant form of design in large, complex systems. For this reason, Patterns for API Design is perfectly timed and should be considered essential reading for any architect.

Rick Kazman, University of Hawaii

Finally, the important topic of API design is addressed systematically! I wish I would have had this great pattern collection a few years earlier.

Dr. Gernot Starke, INNOQ Fellow

I observed software projects fail because middleware technology hid a systems distributed nature from programmers. They designed problematic APIs of a non-distributed gestalt exercised remotely. This book embraces the required dispersal of software in an interdependent world and provides timeless advice on designing interfaces between its separated parts. The Patterns guide beyond specific middleware technology and will not only help with creation and understanding but also with necessary evolution of the interconnected software systems we grow today and in the future. Those systems not only span the globe for international business, but also work within our cars, houses, and almost any technology our daily lives depend on.

Peter Sommerlad, independent consultant, author of
Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture: A System of Patterns and Security Patterns

The book Patterns for API Design is the Swiss army knife for software engineers and architects when it comes to designing, evolving, and documenting APIs. What I particularly like about the book is that it does not just throw the patterns at the reader; instead, the authors use realistic examples, provide hands-on architecture decision support, and exemplify patterns and decisions using a case study. As a result, their pattern language is very accessible. You can use the book to find solutions for specific problems or browse entire chapters to get an overview of the problem and solution spaces related to API design. All patterns are well-crafted, well-named, and peer-reviewed by the practitioner community. Its a joy.

Dr. Uwe van Heesch, Practicing Software Architect and
Former Vice President Hillside Europe

This comprehensive collection of API patterns is an invaluable resource for software engineers and architects designing interoperable software systems. The introduction into API fundamentals and numerous case study examples make it excellent teaching material for future software engineers. Many of the patterns discussed in this book are extremely useful in practice and were applied to design the APIs of integrated, mission-critical rail operations centre systems.

Andrei Furda, Senior Software Engineer at Hitachi Rail STS Australia

Patterns for API Design

Patterns for API Design

Simplifying Integration with Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges

Olaf Zimmermann
Mirko Stocker
Daniel Lbke
Uwe Zdun
Cesare Pautasso

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Cover image: Joshua Small-Photographer / Shutterstock

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