Appendix A. API Design Worksheets
We’ve added these worksheets to accompany our hands-on design advice. The worksheets can be used to accompany the fictitious example from Chapter 5, or used repeatedly as templates for your own API designs.
Define Business Objectives
The Problem
Briefly define the problem and how it affects customers and the business.
The Impact
Define what success looks like for your API. What will the world be like after you’ve released your new API?
Key User Stories
List several key user stories for your API with the following template:
Technology Architecture
Describe the technology architecture you’ve selected, along with the reasons behind your decision. You may wish to include charts or graphs showing the pros and cons of paradigms you’ve considered. Here’s an optional example table:
Pattern, paradigm, or protocol considered | Pros | Cons | Selected? |
---|---|---|---|
API Specification Template
Title
Authors
Problem
Solution
Implementation
Give a high-level description of the implementation plan. You may wish to use additional tables or diagrams to describe your plan.
Authentication
Describe how developers will gain access to the API.
Other Things We Considered
If you considered any other API paradigms, architectures, authentication strategies, protocols, etc., briefly mention what you considered. ...
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