Real-time hypermedia APIs: Exploring the fundamentals of how we build networked application interfaces
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The document discusses strategies for creating meaningful and expressive APIs that address current limitations such as inefficiency and complexity. It emphasizes the use of schemas and hypermedia, alongside tools like GraphQL, to improve client interactions and support real-time features. The focus is on providing a rich interface experience while allowing powerful client tooling and accommodating various encodings.
![HOW TO COMMUNICATE
THE DOCUMENT MODEL
▸ Data: {…}, […],123, 123.456, “String”, true, false, null.
▸ Documents: Some content with an associated URL.
▸ Links: A URL, an action, and optionally some parameters.](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/iloveapis-london-2016-tomchristie1-160311105125/85/Real-time-hypermedia-APIs-Exploring-the-fundamentals-of-how-we-build-networked-application-interfaces-6-320.jpg)
Real-time hypermedia APIs: Exploring the fundamentals of how we build networked application interfaces
- 1. COMMUNICATE HOW TO OR… “HOW WE CAN CREATE MORE MEANINGFUL, EXPRESSIVE INTERFACES, BUILD DYNAMIC CLIENT LIBRARIES & POWERFUL CLIENT TOOLING, & MOVE TOWARDS REALTIME HYPERMEDIA APIS.”
- 2. HOW TO COMMUNICATE LIMITATIONS OF OUR CURRENT APIS ▸ Not self-descriptive. ▸ Complexity as APIs grow. Ad-hoc endpoints. ▸ Can be inefficient. Multiple round-trips & overfetch. ▸ What about realtime?
- 3. HOW TO COMMUNICATE TACKLING API COMPLEXITY ▸ Schemas - API description, typically for documentation. ▸ Hypermedia - Modest uptake, no killer tooling. ▸ Graph QL - Motived by inefficiency & complexity.
- 4. THE FUNDAMENTALS What interface does the service present?
- 5. ▸ Define a DOM that clients interact with. ▸ Decouple the encoding and transport concerns.
- 6. HOW TO COMMUNICATE THE DOCUMENT MODEL ▸ Data: {…}, […],123, 123.456, “String”, true, false, null. ▸ Documents: Some content with an associated URL. ▸ Links: A URL, an action, and optionally some parameters.
- 7. HOW TO COMMUNICATE THE DOCUMENT MODEL ▸ Documents can be nested. ▸ Contain both links and data. ▸ Support either schemas or hypermedia.
- 8. HOW TO COMMUNICATE INTERACTING USING CORE API ▸ Client only interfaces at the document layer. ▸ Not concerned with network details in any way. ▸ Multiple encodings & transports supported.
- 10. ▸ Provide the document to act on. ▸ Index to a link in the document. ▸ Possibly some named parameters. HOW TO COMMUNICATE INTERACTING WITH OUR API
- 11. HOW TO COMMUNICATE MEANINGFUL INTERACTIONS ▸ Building network requests… ▸ Performing interactions…
- 12. HOW TO COMMUNICATE INTERACTING WITH EXISTING SERVICES
- 13. HOW TO COMMUNICATE INTERACTING WITH EXISTING SERVICES
- 14. HOW TO COMMUNICATE CLIENT TOOLING
- 15. HOW TO COMMUNICATE MULTIPLE ENCODINGS ▸ Core API servers can respond with a range of encodings.
- 16. HOW TO COMMUNICATE PARTIAL TRANSITIONS ▸ Interact with nested documents. ▸ Replace only the relevant part of the document tree.
- 17. HOW TO COMMUNICATE RICH INTERFACES
- 18. HOW TO COMMUNICATE RICH INTERFACES ▸ Not constrained to CRUD style APIs.
- 19. HOW TO COMMUNICATE REALTIME HYPERMEDIA APIS 1. 4. 2. 3. 5.
- 20. HOW TO COMMUNICATE REALTIME HYPERMEDIA APIS ▸ WebSockets support for realtime APIs.
- 21. HOW TO COMMUNICATE SUMMARY ▸ Meaningful, self-descriptive interfaces. ▸ Able to interact with existing schema/hypermedia formats. ▸ Schemas for an easy win. Hypermedia for rich interfaces. ▸ Encourages an interface-first API design style. ▸ Allows for powerful client tooling. ▸ Realtime Hypermedia APIs.