API Versioning Has No “Right Way”

But it does have quite a few bad ideas.

PUT vs PATCH vs JSON-PATCH

What is the difference between them?

A question that is asked with increasing regularity in the APIs You Won’t Hate Slack Group is one which has been asked for years, but does not always have a good answer. The question is:

Turning Contracts into Beautiful Documentation

Continuing on the topic of contracts — metadata that describes your data — it…

Representing State in REST and GraphQL

Representing state is a complex thing. At my last two jobs, it’s been very common for APIs to be treated like “databases over HTTP”. The fields are sent up and down from the server to multiple mobile/web apps, and there’s not too much else going on.

Making the Most of JSON-API

If you absolutely positively have to use JSON-API for your API, here’s how to make it not terrible.

With JSON-API (and any other compound document-based advice) starting to feel a little…

Why Do People Dislike JSON?

It was cool and then it started getting a bad rap

I’ve seen a few people promoting GraphQL and gRPC over REST, almost purely on the merits of being “not JSON”. They moan about JSON and instil the virtues of these…

Commit to API Contracts

When building and maintaining a Web API, it’s surprisingly common for the “I” (interface) part to be overlooked. Often new functionality is built in close contact with a specific client, with the backend and frontend developers sitting together to hash out the functionality.

GraphQL vs REST: Caching

Outlining the approach the two API paradigms take to caching

You Might Not Need GraphQL

Do you like the look of GraphQL, but have an existing REST/RPC API that you don’t want to ditch? GraphQL definitely has some cool features and benefits. Those are all bundled in one package, with a nice marketing site, documenting how to do all the cool stuff, which makes GraphQL…