RESTful Web APIs
by Leonard Richardson, Michael Amundsen, Sam Ruby · first published 2013
12mentions
7recommended by
11HN commenters
2014–2022first – last mentioned
64% recommend36% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Explains REST as Roy Fielding meant it, including hypermedia and HATEOAS, rather than the looser JSON-over-HTTP style many APIs use; suited to engineers designing or reviewing web APIs.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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I think it depends on what type of API you'd like to design. If you're talking about REST APIs, then the best book I've come across is RESTful Web APIs by Leonard Richardson and Mike Amundsen: http://restfulwebapis.org/ It actually shows you how to do REST properly, not that shoddy knock-off REST that some people push, where you have to document all…
on “Ask HN: What are good reads for designing APIs?” ↗…most developers misunderstand it, and REST as Roy Fielding, inventor of REST, understands it. For the former you can read the Microsoft REST guidelines, for the latter I suggest getting Mike Amundsen's RESTful Web APIs book. If you do go with the latter be prepared for a lot of frustration with those who went with the former.
on “REST Introduction” ↗…it's not REST.) HATEOAS puts no constraint on how your data is shaped. A specific implementation of REST may or may not have a nice way to navigate graphs. [0] http://restcookbook.com/Basics/hateoas/ RESTful Web APIs (2013)[1] is a very, very good book about this stuff. The book has a mailing list with some good discussion about this stuff [2]. [1] http://www.amazon.com/RESTful-Web-APIs-Leonard-Richardson/dp... [2]…
on “Coding the Angular Tutorial App in Backbone” ↗This book is very good: http://www.amazon.com/RESTful-Web-APIs-Leonard-Richardson/dp...
on “Some REST best practices” ↗Hey, check out this book, should be helpful https://www.amazon.com/RESTful-Web-APIs-Services-Changing/dp...
on “ASK HN: Advanced API Development, Advice Needed” ↗…http://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hyperte... I have also found collection+json and hypermedia application language (HAL) to be useful. Plus, I have spent a bunch of time reading the Restful Web APIs book from O'Reilly. Useful for me, as a relative newbie, in providing some logical foundation to start from . . .
on “Some REST best practices” ↗The classic book on the subject is RESTful Web APIs[1], and it spends a while explaining HATEOAS by using the example of the web as we've come to expect it as the exemplar REST API using HATEOAS. I also have this essay[2] on HATEOAS in my open tabs, and…
on “How to Design Better APIs” ↗…you. But as the complexity of an API grows, the point at which it's easier to use REST than not arrives very quickly. If you want to read more about this, the best book I've found on the subject is RESTful Web APIs: http://restfulwebapis.com/
on “You know how HTTP GET requests are meant to be idempotent?” ↗I've read most of the book RESTful Web APIs, which advocates Hypermedia as a way to stop having to create client-specific libraries for each and every Web API. But the book doesn't say much about creating such clients. Is there such a generic…
on “Show HN: Given an API, Generate client libraries in Node, Python, PHP, Ruby” ↗…excellent scifi novel Constellation Games, by Leonard Richardson: http://boingboing.net/2013/02/20/constellation-games-debut-s... You may also know Richardson's other writing, such as the O'Reilly books RESTful Web APIs and RESTful Web Services, or the Python HTML-processing library Beautiful Soup. Comparatively, Constellation Games has more action and satire.
on “Carl Sagan's idea for Contact video game (1983) [video]” ↗I agree with your preference. I too lean towards a pragmatic approach to REST, which I've seen referred to as "RESTful", as in the popular book "RESTful Web APIs" by Richardson.
on “REST vs GraphQL vs gRPC” ↗…available and what works now. Issue #1 will be sending out today at 6PM EST to subscribers. One subscriber will be selected to receive a paperback copy of High Performance Web sites and a paperback copy of RESTful Web APIs. Check the links out and let me know what you think. I appreciate your time! https://medium.com/@jessehorne/the-rng-i-wrote-to-pick-weekl... https://thisweek.club/
on “Show HN: PRNGs and Todays Giveaway” ↗