RESTful API Design Pattern

Dmytro Tus

Full Stack Web developer

In this blogpost I will describe the definition of RESTful API, also I will provide another patterns which are used to build the API. 

So let's start...

Imagine, that we are building application, which needs to interact with another application somewhere in internet. For example when we are posting the image on the Facebook we, can click and button "publish" and the photo will be published. Unfortunatelly we can not use this approach with another application.

Instead of that we are creating some interface, which is opened for another applications, and this another application ( one or many ) can "tell" our application what shall we do: create image, delete image, etc.

This interface for interaction called API ( Application Programming Interface ).

There are many patterns are used in building API. They are:

• RESTful API
• SOAP API
• GraphQL API
• Hypermedia API
• Event Driven API
• Message Queue API

If our case, we are working with RESTful API design pattern, so let's describe what RESTful API do. It:

• Uses HTTP methods to interact with resources
• Supports caching and scalability
• Works well for CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations
• Allows for stateless communication between client and server
• Can be used with a variety of programming languages and frameworks

When we are building RESTful API pattern we must follow to the https method and what they do:

And also we need to give a correct code in the response:

Some common REST API design patterns include:

• Resource-Based: This pattern focuses on organizing API endpoints around resources, which represent entities in the system being exposed via the API.
• CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete): This pattern is a common approach for defining the four basic operations (create, read, update, delete) that can be performed on a resource.
• HATEOAS (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State): This pattern involves including hyperlinks in API responses that allow clients to discover and navigate the API resources.
• Filter and Pagination: This pattern involves implementing filtering and pagination capabilities to allow clients to efficiently retrieve subsets of data from a resource.
• Versioning: This pattern involves providing different versions of an API to support changes in the API without breaking existing clients.

And in the end I will show the example of routes in Laravel which were built according the RESTful API design pattern.

<?php

use App\Http\Controllers\ProductsApiController;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Route;

/*
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| API Routes
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
| Here is where you can register API routes for your application. These
| routes are loaded by the RouteServiceProvider within a group which
| is assigned the "api" middleware group. Enjoy building your API!
|
*/

Route::get('/posts', [ProductsApiController::class, 'index']);
Route::get('/posts/{post}', [ProductsApiController::class, 'get']);
Route::post('/posts', [ProductsApiController::class, 'store']);
Route::put('/posts/{post}', [ProductsApiController::class, 'update']);
Route::delete('/posts/{post}', [ProductsApiController::class, 'destroy']);