Patterns for API Design: Simplifying Integration with Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges

Proven Patterns for Designing Evolvable High-Quality APIs--For Any Domain, Technology, or Platform

"This book provides a healthy mix of theory and practice, containing numerous nuggets of deep advice but never losing the big picture . . . grounded in real-world experience and documented with academic rigor applied and practitioner community feedback incorporated. I am confident that [it] will serve the community well, today and tomorrow."

--Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. Frank Leymann, Managing Director, Institute of Architecture of Application Systems, University of Stuttgart

APIs enable breakthrough innovation and digital transformation in organizations and ecosystems of all kinds. To create user-friendly, reliable and well-performing APIs, architects, designers, and developers need expert design guidance. This practical guide cuts through the complexity of API conversations and their message contents, introducing comprehensive guidelines and heuristics for designing APIs sustainably and specifying them clearly, for whatever technologies or platforms you use.

In Patterns for API Design: Simplifying Integration with Loosely Coupled Message Exchanges, five expert architects and developers cover the entire API lifecycle, from launching projects and establishing goals through defining requirements, elaborating designs, planning evolution, and creating useful documentation. They crystallize the collective knowledge of many practitioners into 44 API design patterns, consistently explained with context, pros and cons, conceptual solutions, and concrete examples. To make their pattern language accessible, they present a domain model, a running case study, decision narratives with pattern selection options and criteria, and walkthroughs of real-world projects applying the patterns in two different industries.

• Identify and overcome API design challenges with patterns
• Size your endpoint types and operations adequately
• Design request and response messages and their representations
• Refine your message design for quality
• Plan to evolve your APIs
• Document and communicate your API contracts
• Combine patterns to solve real-world problems and make the right tradeoffs

《API設計模式：簡化鬆散耦合的訊息交換》是一本針對任何領域、技術或平台的設計可演進高品質API的實踐指南。這本書結合了理論和實踐，提供了許多深入建議，同時又不失整體視野。它基於實際經驗，並融入了學術嚴謹性和從業者社群的反饋。我相信這本書將在今天和未來為社群服務。

API能夠在各種組織和生態系統中實現突破性創新和數位轉型。為了創建用戶友好、可靠且性能良好的API，架構師、設計師和開發人員需要專業的設計指導。這本實用指南剖析了API交流和訊息內容的複雜性，引入了全面的指南和啟發法，以可持續地設計和清晰地指定API，無論你使用什麼技術或平台。

在《API設計模式：簡化鬆散耦合的訊息交換》中，五位專家架構師和開發人員涵蓋了整個API生命週期，從啟動項目和確定目標，到定義需求、詳細設計、規劃演進和創建有用的文件。他們將許多從業者的集體知識凝聚成44個API設計模式，並提供了相應的背景、優缺點、概念解決方案和具體示例。為了使他們的模式語言易於理解，他們提供了一個領域模型、一個實例研究、帶有模式選擇選項和標準的決策敘述，以及在兩個不同行業中應用模式的實際項目演示。

本書內容包括：
- 通過模式解決API設計挑戰
- 適當地設計端點類型和操作
- 設計請求和回應訊息及其表示
- 提升訊息設計的品質
- 規劃API的演進
- 文件化和傳達API契約
- 結合模式解決現實問題並做出正確的權衡

這本書將幫助讀者深入了解API設計的最佳實踐，並提供實用的指導，以應對日益複雜的API需求。無論你是初學者還是有經驗的開發人員，這本書都將成為你在API設計領域的寶貴資源。

Olaf Zimmermann is professor of software architecture at the Institute for Software at Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, Distinguished IT Architect at The Open Group, and co-editor of IEEE Software's Insights column. Mirko Stocker is professor of software engineering at Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences, specializing on Web development and cloud solutions. Daniel Lübke is an independent coding and consulting architect who specializes in business process automation and digitization projects. Uwe Zdun is professor of software architecture at the University of Vienna, focusing on distributed systems engineering, DevOps, patterns, modeling, and empirical software engineering. Cesare Pautasso is a professor at the Università della Svizzera Italiana, where he leads the Architecture, Design, and Web Information Systems Engineering research group. The authors are active community members participating in pattern writer's workshops, shepherding other authors, serving on program committees, and chairing conferences.

Olaf Zimmermann是東瑞士應用科學大學軟體研究所的軟體架構教授，也是The Open Group的傑出IT架構師，並且是IEEE Software的Insights專欄的共同編輯。Mirko Stocker是東瑞士應用科學大學軟體工程教授，專攻網頁開發和雲端解決方案。Daniel Lübke是獨立的編碼和諮詢架構師，專注於業務流程自動化和數位化項目。Uwe Zdun是維也納大學軟體架構教授，專注於分散式系統工程、DevOps、模式、建模和實證軟體工程。Cesare Pautasso是瑞士義大利大學的教授，領導著架構、設計和網頁資訊系統工程研究小組。這些作者都是活躍的社群成員，參與模式撰寫者的研討會，指導其他作者，擔任計畫委員會成員，並主持會議。