Trends Report

API Design, Part 1: REST Is The Leading But Not Only Option For Your APIs

Favor Pragmatic REST Over REST Theory; Use SOAP And MOM Where Appropriate

August 21st, 2013
Randy Heffner, null
Randy Heffner
With contributors:
Mike Gilpin , Michael Facemire , Eve Maler , Steven Kesler

Summary

To fully exploit the business opportunity available through application programming interfaces (APIs), your designers must consider each API's purpose and audience as they answer a wide range of technical design questions. Although open Web APIs heavily favor REST messaging, the data shows that SOAP and messaging queuing can provide certain benefits, particularly for B2B APIs and internal APIs. As part of a series on API design practices, this report examines industry data and directions for positioning REST within your API strategy and for overall guidance on REST API design.

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