Questions tagged [web-api]
Specific APIs that communicate over web protocols, such as ASP.net Web API, as well as APIs that are exposed to web pages for network communication or apps for device communication
368
questions
95
votes
15
answers
18k
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Should we design our code from the beginning to enable unit testing?
There's a debate going on in our team at the moment as to whether modifying code design to allow unit testing is a code smell, or to what extent it can be done without being a code smell. This has ...
- 1,101
70
votes
4
answers
27k
views
Why PATCH method is not idempotent?
I was wondering about this.
Suppose I have a user resource with id and name fields.
If I want to update a field I could just do a PATCH request to the resource like this
PATCH /users/42
{"name&...
- 952
58
votes
2
answers
50k
views
Is performance the only reason not to use SignalR (websockets) entirely in lieu of a traditional REST API?
I have used SignalR to achieve real-time messaging functionality in several of my projects. It seems to work reliably and is very easy to learn to use.
The temptation, at least for me, is to abandon ...
- 1,071
49
votes
12
answers
24k
views
How do I manage the technical debate over WCF vs. Web API?
I'm managing a team of like 15 developers now, and we are stuck at a point on choosing the technology, where the team is broken into two completely opposite teams, debating over usage of WCF vs. Web ...
- 18.1k
42
votes
7
answers
43k
views
Why do people do REST API's instead of DBAL's?
At the past two companies, I've been at, REST API's exist for querying data via webapp - i.e. instead of having the webapp do SQL directly it calls a REST API and that does the SQL and returns the ...
- 558
42
votes
1
answer
7k
views
How to design a REST API that can "prompt" the client about long-running operations?
Say you were to develop a REST API that provides access to a set of complex, long-running, operations.
The typical paradigm for an API like this (as I understand it) usually involves (the client) ...
- 531
41
votes
3
answers
44k
views
Should we call Web API from MVC application in same solution?
I am working on a project in MVC that has mobile application so one thing is clear that we have to use Web API so it can used in mobile application.
After creating API when we started to develop Web ...
- 547
40
votes
8
answers
139k
views
Use empty string, null or remove empty property in API request/response
When transferring object through an API, as in schemaless JSON format, what is the ideal way to return non-existent string property? I know that there are different ways of doing this as in examples ...
- 3,468
33
votes
5
answers
30k
views
Should I check if something exists in the db and fail fast or wait for db exception
Having two classes:
public class Parent
{
public int Id { get; set; }
public int ChildId { get; set; }
}
public class Child { ... }
When assigning ChildId to Parent should I check first if ...
- 1,499
33
votes
4
answers
36k
views
Why is there no WSDL type support for Web Api?
So I am just getting started with .Net WebApi and one thing that I am noticing straight away is that there is no Contract defining how the API looks and should be consumed (Request/Responses from each ...
- 476
31
votes
2
answers
19k
views
Role-based REST API?
I'm building a REST API for which several users with different roles will have access to the resources it contains.
To keep the scope simple let's take the "student/teacher/class" domain:
GET /...
- 413
27
votes
6
answers
6k
views
Is it ok to have validation layer before access control layer
I am creating an API strcutured web application and in this application we have different layers which are doing their own job.
First layer is Validation layer which validate user input and if it ...
- 399
26
votes
3
answers
9k
views
RESTful API: HTTP verbs with shared or specific URLs?
While creating a RESTful API, should I use HTTP Verbs on the same URL (when it's possible) or should I create an specific URL per action?
For example:
GET /items # Read all items
GET /...
- 1,706
26
votes
3
answers
70k
views
Best practice for REST API call with many parameters
I have a REST API with GETs operations which receive a (long) list of parameters (8 parameters, for example). The aim of this operation is to search and filter elements.
Which is the best practice to ...
21
votes
2
answers
11k
views
Isn't CQRS overengineering?
I still remember good old days of repositories. But repositories used to grow ugly with time. Then CQRS got mainstream. They were nice, they were a breath of fresh air. But recently I've been asking ...
- 4,733
20
votes
1
answer
12k
views
Why do Microsoft's libraries depend on Newtonsoft.Json?
This had probably started way back when Microsoft created ASP.NET Web API library, at least that's when I remember it if I am not mistaken. Anyway, since then, its HTTP packages started depending on ...
- 319
18
votes
5
answers
29k
views
Is it bad practice to use hyphens in JSON keys?
I see a lot of questions revolving around accessing JSON keys that use hyphens (kebab-case), but now I find myself wondering should I just stick to camelCase or snake_case in my keys. I know hyphens ...
- 401
18
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Is Open Data Protocol (odata) Being Widely Embraced by the Development Community? [closed]
EDIT: In case you aren't familiar with OData, here you go.
I am trying to determine whether it is worth learning this technology or if it is something that is not going to catch on.
The premise is ...
- 3,305
17
votes
4
answers
27k
views
Use composition and inheritance for DTOs
We have a ASP.NET Web API that provides a REST API for our Single Page Application. We use DTOs/POCOs to pass data through this API.
The problem is now, that these DTOs are getting bigger over time, ...
- 289
17
votes
3
answers
22k
views
How to design a REST API to handle non-CRUD operations?
I'm trying to convert a set of SOAP-based services to a RESTful API.
I started by identifying resources by analyzing operation names and I got the resource Subscription.
When I need to update the ...
- 345
15
votes
1
answer
11k
views
What is the point of link rel="self" in a REST API?
I often see the following in HTML documents
<link rel="self" href="http://example.com/something">
or like this in JSON
link: {
rel="self",
href="http://example.com/something"
}
...
- 5,576
13
votes
2
answers
14k
views
Can a REST API return multiple resources as one single compound resource?
I'm in the progress of creating a REST API and currently, I'm encountering the following problem:
Foo is the first resource. CRUD operations can be applied via the /foo/ URI.
Bar is the second ...
- 255
13
votes
3
answers
7k
views
Designing a REST API with resource relationships?
I'm working to design a REST API to be consumed by a React SPA.
The client-side of the SPA queries data about a relationship between two entities: Team and Player where Teams have many Players and ...
- 1,243
12
votes
5
answers
25k
views
Is it a bad idea to pass JSON objects on the query string for an API "search" operation?
I'm building an API endpoint for a UI grid to search, filter, and display a list of domain objects, let's call them "widgets." In the past, I would have built this with a list of named query string ...
- 803
12
votes
2
answers
24k
views
How to avoid unauthorized use of an API?
I have to design a "widget", a script that partners will embed in their websites to display some UI and make calls to our API.
Basically it will display our data on these sites based on some IDs they ...
- 527
10
votes
1
answer
13k
views
pattern to share objects between API and application
I'm having serious doubts about the design for my Web application.
I wanted to separate the business logic from the interface so I made a Web API that handles all the requests to the database.
It's ...
- 525
10
votes
3
answers
1k
views
API endpoint POST vs GET
Help me settle an internal question.
We have an endpoint which we all agree should be a GET, because all it's doing is calling a stored proc and returning a set of data. However, there is a set of ...
- 239
10
votes
3
answers
2k
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REST API: Resource Ownership
Let's say there are Users and Pets. Each Pet has a single User as its owner, and a globally unique id. Endpoints could be
/users/1/pets/2
/pets/2
I feel like the first option could be unintuitive ...
- 105
8
votes
5
answers
563
views
How to map "mv" operation to HTTP verbs?
In designing a RESTful api the problem arises as to how best to allow resources to be moved between collections.
Renaming a resource could be done by using PATCH but this is not the same thing as ...
- 191
8
votes
5
answers
13k
views
Is creating ViewModels in Web API a bad practice?
So, somebody at work who is twice as experienced than I am, told us that we must not create ViewModel classes within Web API. (We are using Angular for UI)
In his opinion ViewModel is ASP.NET MVC ...
- 311
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How do you organize API endpoint contracts
Where trying to improve the "confidence" we have in our inter-service communication.
Background:
"Contracts" has been a matter of sharing a piece of code that defines an interface to implement, but ...
- 254
7
votes
2
answers
6k
views
Best practice to handle POST with array of objects if at least one object raise an Exception
I want to POST an array of objects and make an insertion in database concerning each of them.
What is the best practice if one object does not conform and raise an Exception? (cancel all transactions ...
- 73
7
votes
3
answers
15k
views
Should I use both WCF and ASP.NET Web API
We already have a WCF API with basichttpbinding.
Some of the calls have complex objects in both the response and request.
We need to add RESTful abilities to the API.
at first I tried adding a ...
- 1,329
7
votes
5
answers
357
views
How to designing API JSON Response with nullable fields
We were discussing how to design a API response, for simplicity, think of having to give information of all the different types of facilities available in a city:
{
"city": {
"cityName": "...
- 179
7
votes
2
answers
19k
views
How to correctly implement key=value storage REST API
I'm new to REST API, so I decided to get familiar with it by designing a small web service API. I have its design written down and would like you to review it. I feel like I have made some mistakes in ...
- 73
7
votes
1
answer
5k
views
How should data transfer between a client and a web API for normalized data be designed?
I want to design an API backed by some database (doesn't really matter which, but to make the discussion more interesting, let's say it's Mongo - explanation below) which sends data to a client.
The ...
- 223
7
votes
1
answer
13k
views
Return values for CRUD methods?
I'm writing a basic web API in Java that does what almost all others do: take input, validate it, then do CRUD operations on the DB. I've written several APIs before, and I've pretty much already ...
- 1,859
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Whether to embed linked resources in REST API
I am building a REST API where clients can query user-sent messages, like this:
GET http://example.com/api/v1/messages?from=0&to=100
Response:
[
{
"id": 12345,
"text": "...
- 251
7
votes
2
answers
920
views
Separation of concerns and other best practices across Controllers, Services, Providers and Stores in ASP.NET when building a REST web api
I am traditionally a desktop app developer, but circumstance has thrust me into the role of doing web client and corresponding REST api logic for a project I am involved in. Unfortunately, I'm a one-...
- 171
7
votes
1
answer
7k
views
Should the views or front-end server call the RESTful API layer
I need to build a new web application and I am looking for advice on how to manage communication to my API layer. My goal is to have complete separation between the front-end and back-end code. Like ...
- 173
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
Authentication setup advice for web app and its backend API
I am fairly new to web development, and I am learning to build web applications. I am facing a problem figuring out how to set up authentication mechanisms for a multi-user application. Let me provide ...
- 179
7
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Handling events and incoming Web API calls simultaneously
I'm working on a project where I got an architecture with multiple "Microservices" communicating with each other by using an event bus (RabbitMQ).
I got an Web API-project set up for each service so ...
- 191
6
votes
2
answers
8k
views
Good practice for status code returned by restful API when validating a token
I am working on client JavaScript SPA and a restful API on HTTPS.
Client application needs to call a public endpoint (no token required) in order to valid (GET) a specific TOKEN previously remember ...
- 705
6
votes
3
answers
1k
views
GET vs POST when exposing machine learning model predictions using a REST API
So the recommendations for using GET vs POST in a REST API that I've read on stack overflow are geared almost exclusively toward CRUD operations involving a database.
However if you are simply writing ...
- 267
6
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What layer do third party API request/response models go in and what do you call them?
I have a RESTful API service that has three layers: Application/Domain, Infrastructure, and Presentation.
Application/Domain contain my interfaces and models. I currently have three different types of ...
- 161
6
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Is it bad practice to call another API from a Filter?
I am using Java, Spring and Jersey.
I have a REST API A which receives a query parameter called q and sends this to another API B to get a response.
I need to implement a change where I first need ...
- 539
6
votes
1
answer
494
views
How does this kind of application and DDD relate?
In Domain-Driven Design the application is divided, as I understand, into four layers:
Presentation Layer
Application Layer
Domain Layer
Infrastructure Layer
I understand this well, for instance, ...
- 4,797
6
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Token or ASP.NET Identity based security in ASP.NET Web API 2
Background
I have a Web API 2 project, without any extension of ASP.NET MVC or ASP.NET projects. The API will only be used to communicate between the server and Windows 8, Windows Phone 8.1 and iOS ...
- 63
5
votes
2
answers
9k
views
validation error responses in REST API
I'm designing a RESTful API and wondering what's the best format for validation error messages.
For example, my account creation endpoint accepts a JSON object:
user: {
first_name: string,
...
- 159
5
votes
1
answer
8k
views
why Web API 2 has RouteConfig.cs file?
I m working on Web API project, and it is using WebApiConfig.cs file to defined routs for Web API.
Web API fold RouteConfig.cs file. I have googled and they say RouteConfig.cs is for MVC routing. It ...
- 211