32 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
32 lines
1.9 KiB
Markdown
# Introduction to API Design Patterns
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## What are API Design Patterns?
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A **software design *pattern*** is a particular design that can be applied over and over to lots of similar software problems, with only minor adjustments. It is not a pre-built library but more of a *blueprint* for solving similarly structured problems.
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- Most often, design patterns focus on specific components rather than entire systems.
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- e.g. If you want to add a logging system, you can use the **singleton design pattern**.
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- This pattern is not complete
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- However, it's well-defined and well-tested pattern to follow when you need to solve this small compartmentalised problem of always having a single instance of a class.
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## Why are API Design Patterns Important?
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- While having programmatic access to a system is very valuable, it's also much more fragile and brittle.
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- Changes to the interface can easily cause failures for those using the interface.
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- We refer to this aspect as *flexibility*
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- Interfaces where users can easily accommodate changes are *flexible*
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- GUIs are flexible - moving a button
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- Interfaces where even small changes cause complete failures are *rigid*.
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- Backend APIs: changing a query parameter breaks old client code.
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- Rigid interfaces make it much more difficult to iterate toward a great design.
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- We are often stuck with all design decisions, both good and bad.
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**Pagination Pattern**: The pagination pattern is a way of retrieving a long list of items in smaller, more manageable chunks. The pattern relies on extra fields on both the request and response.
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Moving from a non-paginated to paginated response pattern:
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Q. What happens if we don't start with the pattern?
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1. All previously written clients are expected all the data in one list - it has no way of getting subsequent pages.
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2. Clients are left to think they have all the data - which can lead to incorrect conclusions.
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