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'That's not what you said yesterday!' - evolving your Web API
In this talk I’ll discuss the creation and ongoing evolution of a RESTful API. We’ve all read the articles and blogs about the design of these kinds of APIs but there are very few that talk about the maintenance in the face of a continually changing service. It turns out that there are all kinds of pitfalls and traps that make it hard to change an established API.
I’ll cover the design of API URLs, versioning strategies and techniques for preserving backwards compatibility. HTTP provides a lot of the mechanics but the less common HTTP features have patchy support in many clients, particularly the non-browser clients that are likely to access a service API. This is compounded by many application developers being unaware of HTTP beyond the basics of GET and POST.
The talk should be relevant to anyone interested in web service APIs as well as those designing URL patterns for other resources such as RDF properties and classes. As background I’ll use real examples from the Talis Platform API.
Ian Davis
Talis
I am a technical architect, active on the Internet since the early nineties. My primary area of interest is around the Semantic Web, with more emphasis on the Web and its network effects than on semantics. I advocate the use of Web standards including HTTP, URIs and RDF to build scalable distributed applications. I prefer to use agile development practices especially test-first design. In 2000 I was co-author of the RSS 1.0 specification and I have contributed to many RDF-related developments including vocabularies, frameworks, specifications and standards. I have founded three technology startups in the areas of large scale search, syndication and semantic web architectures. I have a strong personal interest in genealogy.
I’m currently serving as the Chief Technology Officer of Talis, a UK-based company with expertise in semantically rich metadata and in delivering software and services for information management. At Talis I’m leading the development of a new web-based platform for building human-centric, information-rich applications that take advantage of the network effects produced when huge numbers of people interact over the Web.
I maintain a personal blog, Internet Alchemy where I write on technology, the semantic web and whatever else catches my eye. I also contribute to the Talis group blog Nodalities. You can contact me by email using me@iandavis.com or ian.davis@talis.com. I am often on irc.freenode.net as iand in #talis, #swig, #foaf or #code4lib. You can also skype me using the name ian_davis although I prefer chat to voice.