For a particular platform, the Application Program Interface (API) is particularly a toolkit for creating software applications. The process of developing intentional decisions about how an API will show the data and the functionality to its customers is known as API designs. The successful API designs mainly describe the API’s endpoints, resources and methods in a specification format.
These API designs help in increasing the efficiency of the developers and provide them with a well-documented, user-friendly means to access the particular functions or the data without the need of in-depth knowledge about the underlying systems. Therefore, in this article a complete overview has been provided about the API Designs and the 8 API Design Trends to Watch in 2024.
What is API design?
API design is referred to as the process of creating an application programming interface (APIs) which exposes the functionality of the data and applications for using them by the developers. The main aim of APIs in modern organisations is to add new capabilities to everything from their operations and the products to their partnership strategies. A successful API design refers to the methods, API points and the multiple resources in the standardised specification format, thus this API design process benefits both the producers and consumers.
What are API Design Trends?
API Design Trends are the recent advancements and trends which are all across the API ecosystem and which are particularly used in bringing innovation and also adding value to the API development, API security and API management and many more. There are various types of API design trends which are used to empower the businesses to make the data-driven decisions, enhance the overall experience and optimise the API performance.
8 API Design Trends to Watch in 2024
There are multiple API design trends available but some of the top API design trends should be known by every architect. Therefore some of the top 8 API design trends are mentioned below:
1. API management is increasing in Demand
Due to the increase in demand in the interconnected services API management is also increasing in demand as these API management becomes a linchpin for the businesses or organisations seeking to streamline their digital infrastructures. Some of the API management platforms are- Apigge by the Google Cloud which offers a detailed suite of tools to develop, manage and analyse the APIs throughout their lifecycle, it helps in facilitating version control, analytics and access management and also provides a centralised hub for the developers and the administrators to monitor and optimise the API performance. The robust management maintains the security and reliability of the APIs and also enhances the developers’ collaboration and accelerates the time to time market by offering a unified interface for the APIs.
2. API Analytics
API Analytics is evolving as an important component for the organisation which is aiming to understand, optimise, and derive the actionable insights from their API usage. The tools like Google Cloud’s API gateway and the APigee Analytics provide detailed analytics capabilities, detect anomalies, and allow the businesses to monitor API traffic, these tools empower the businesses to make the data driven decisions, optimise the API performances and enhance the user-experience. Therefore, by leveraging the API analytics businesses can stay far ahead from the evolving trends, align their API strategies with the changes happening in the market demand and also actively address the potential issues.
3. API as a product
When testing the APIs as a product particularly involves the considerations beyond the functionalities, documentation, maintaining the user-experience and providing support to the developers. A leading online payment platform is an example of the approach of providing APIs which are not only powerful but they are also developer friendly which offers detailed documentation, client libraries and multiple programming languages turning their APIs into the products which seamlessly integrate with the workflows of the software developers. The main motive which aligns with the API development with the broader business objectives by encouraging innovation and fostering external partnerships through the accessible API offerings.
4. Open API
In recent years the open API has become one of the best practices for developing standardised and accessible APIs. One of the example is, The Swagger Editor which is a part of the Swagger tooling mainly allows the developers to design, test and document the APIs by using the Open API Specifications. The OpenAPI Specification mainly serves the machine readable contract for the restful APIs for simplifying the integration process. The tool such as Swagger Codegen automate the generation of the client libraries and the server stubs which is based on the Open API specifications and also reducing the development effort. After adapting the Open API the businesses contribute to more transparent API ecosystem and helps in easing the onboarding process of the software developers.
5. Security of the APIs
Due to the increase in the reliance on the APIs for the data exchange, robust security measures are the main imperative to safeguard the private information. One of the widely adopted authorization frameworks is OAuth2.0 which enhances the security of the APIs. Auth0 is a type of identity management platform which incorporates the OAuth 2.0 to enable secure authentications by ensuring that only the authorised parties can get the access of the protected resources. Some of the additional tools like the API security gateways offer a detailed set of security features which includes the threat protection, encryption and access control to fortify the APIs against the potential threats.
6. API in the serverless architecture
The integration of the APIs within the Serverless architecture which are particularly redefined how the applications need to be developed and how these applications can be deployed, these serverless computing allows the software developers to mainly focus on the code execution by leaving the infrastructure management to the cloud provider. The APIs in the serverless environment which are designed to be event-driven by giving a response to the triggers without the need for the continuous server provisioning. AWS Lambda is one example of a serverless computing service which enables seamless API integration and allows the software developer to develop scalable and cost effective applications without the overhead of those traditional server management.
7. Async API
Async API approach is a type of approach which combines the strength of asynchronous and synchronous communication. The AWS API Gateway which is a part of AWS ecosystem allows the software developers to design the APIs and provide support to both the asynchronous and synchronous requests, the flexibility is important for the applications for the processing needs. The process of synchronous calls up the cater for the real time interactions by making sure immediate responsiveness whereas the process of asynchronous handles the time intensive tasks.
8. Automating the API standards
Automation plays an important role in the API designs. Postman is a tool which streamline the API development and the testing but it also facilitates the automated checks for the governance and standard policies. Postman monitors the capabilities which allows the teams to automate the validation of the APIs against the predefined standards which make sure the development practices which aligns with the organisational guidelines. Some of the additional continuous integration and the delivery tools like the Github CI and Jenkins which automate the deployment of the APIs by providing a seamless way to enforce version control and the governance policies of development lifecycle.
Conclusion
Application Program Interface (APIs) designs provide an advantage for both the consumer and producers by making sure that APIs support the business objective while it is easy to use, well-documented, testable and adaptable. There is an increase in the market trends of API design due to its increased efficiency. Therefore, in this article a detailed knowledge has been provided about the top 8 API trends which are increasing rapidly in the market.
FAQs
1. What do you mean by API Design ?
API Design is mainly the type of process of making intentional decisions about how an API will expose the functionality and data to its customers. These API Designs are very beneficial to add new capabilities to everything from their product and operations to their partnership strategies.
2. Why do we need an API Design ?
API designs are the collection of architectural and planning decisions which the developers make while developing an API. We need these types of API designs because the API designs enhance the user-experience and help the businesses to get more user engagement in the applications or websites.
3. What are the benefits of API Designs ?
There are multiple benefits of the API Designs in the technical field. The major benefits of a well designed API include improvement in developer experience, higher adoption of API, faster documentation to help the developers.
4. Name the best API Design trends which are popular in the market ?
Some of the best API Design trends which are popular in the market are API management is evolving, Analytics API, API as a product, Open API, Security API, API in the serverless architecture, Async API and Automating the API standards.
