RESTful Web APIs

The popularity of REST in recent years has led to tremendous growth in almost-RESTful APIs that don't include many of the architecture's benefits. With this practical guide, you'll learn what it takes to design usable REST APIs that evolve over time. By focusing on solutions that cross a variety of domains, this book shows you how to create powerful and secure applications, using the tools designed for the world's most successful distributed computing system: the World Wide Web.

"The three big new things in RESTful Web APIs" by Leonard Richardson

You'll explore the concepts behind REST, learn different strategies for creating hypermedia-based APIs, and then put everything together with a step-by-step guide to designing a RESTful Web API.

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• Examine API design strategies, including the collection pattern and pure hypermedia
• Understand how hypermedia ties representations together into a coherent API
• Discover how XMDP and ALPS profile formats can help you meet the Web API "semantic challenge"
• Learn close to two-dozen standardized hypermedia data formats
• Apply best practices for using HTTP in API implementations
• Create Web APIs with the JSON-LD standard and other the Linked Data approaches
• Understand the CoAP protocol for using REST in embedded systems

RESTful Web APIs is the definitive guide to the design of web APIs.

Buy The Book

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You can buy the book through Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Powells, or Kobo. You can also read the book through Safari Books Online.

The book is currently making its way to chain and technical bookstores. If your local bookstore doesn't stock it, you can special-order it. The ISBN for RESTful Web APIs is 1449358063.

Early Praise for RESTful Web APIs

"A terrific book! RESTful Web APIs covers the most important trends and practices in APIs today."

John Musser Founder, Programmable Web

"This book is the best place to start learning the essential craft of API Design."

Matt McLarty Cofounder, API Academy

"The entire time I read this book, I was cursing. I was cursing because as I read each explanation, I was worried that they were so good that it would be hard to find a better one to use in my own writing. You will not find another work that explores the topic so thoroughly yet explains the topic so clearly. Please, take these tools, build something fantastic, and share it with the rest of the world, okay?"

Steve Klabnik Author, Designing Hypermedia APIs

"Wonderfully thorough treatment of hypermedia formats, REST's least well understood tenet."

Stefan Tilkov REST evangelist, author, and consultant

"The best practical guide to hypermedia APIs. A must-have."

Ruben Verborgh Semantic hypermedia researcher