HTTP API Design for iOS Applications

Transcript

1. HTTP API Design for iOS Applications

2. @vanstee Big Nerd Ranch

3. • Modeling Resources • Tools: Server and Client • Real

   world problems • Future

4. Modeling Resources

5. The key abstraction of information in REST is a resource.

6. re·source /ˈrēˌsôrs/ A resource is a conceptual mapping to a

   set of entities, not the entity that corresponds to the mapping at any particular point in time.

7. Resources are not just database records

8. Resources are the nouns. HTTP methods are the verbs. URIs

   are the identifiers. Media types are the representations.

9. But what about transactions? searches? complex actions?

10. Don’t do this: POST /accounts/1/transfer/500.00/to/2 Try this instead: POST /transactions

    { “from”: 1, “to”: 2, “amount”: 500.00 }

11. Tools

12. Server-side • Rails • Active Model Serializers • Custom Responders

    • rack-test and json_spec

13. Client-side • AFNetworking • RestKit (if you really need it)

    • VCRURLConnection and mitmproxy

14. Real World Problems

15. Versioning Don’t do this: POST /v1/users/1 Try this instead: POST

    /users/1 Accept: application/json; version=1.0

16. Authentication • OAuth2 with API routes for token generation •

    NSURLConnection supports cookies • Basic Authentication over HTTPS*

17. Caching • NSURLCache has support for Cache-Control and ETags •

    AFNetworking supports this by default • Rails gives you these for free

18. Smarter Requests • Side loading associated resources • HTTP Pipelining

    for GET, HEAD, PUT, and DELETE requests • HTTP compression

19. Future

20. HTTP 2.0 • Based on SPDY • Multiplexing • Server

    Push • Better compression

21. JSON API • Standard hypermedia type • Always namespaced •

    Always returns collections for easy parsing • Support for batch operations

22. JSON Patch • Standard hypermedia type for updating records •

    Easily handle associations • Send minimal amount of information

23. Thanks blog.steveklabnik.com designinghypermediaapis.com afnetworking.com jsonapi.org