Essential REST API News for 2015/03/30

It is that time, once again, to drop a folder full of browser tabs into the intellectual arena to battle it out. These are the noteworthy pieces that emerged.

DOUBLE-CHECKING API ASSUMPTIONS

Several years into the RESTful API explosion, it can be easy to overlook initial assumptions. At SXSW, Neil Mansilla lead a panel discussion to explore five common API trends. The results sharply illustrate the gap between what thought leaders espouse and what is commonly implemented.

REUSE AND SERVICE ARCHITECTURES

In his blog post Microservices, SOA, Reuse and Replacement Gene Hughson discusses just how difficult it is to achieve true code reuse, APIs or otherwise. When architecting new RESTful services, it is important to keep the trade-offs that Gene lists in mind.

THE ENTIRE API LIFECYCLE

Finally, Bill Doerrfeld, writing on the Nordic APIs blog, outlines the essential elements of an entire API lifecycle. Too many API efforts focus only at getting code out the door. Like any product, an API will undergo numerous changes during its production lifetime. It is vital to understand these changes if an API is going to be successful.

UPCOMING ITEMS OF NOTE

As we approach April, the API conference circuit gets underway in a big way. APIDays and APIStrat Europe have combined to have a massive meeting of the minds April 24 and 25 in Berlin. As the date gets closer, we should have a better idea of the official hashtag for social media monitoring. Until then, if you have API news of note or events worth mentioning, I'd love to hear it!

• Matthew