Build APIs You Won't Hate: Everyone and their dog wants an API, so you should probably learn how to build them. Kindle Edition

After watch Phil Sturgeon's API Pain Point talk, I knew I had struck gold. Not only is his tone conversational and humorous, but he has a wealth of experience dealing with the intricacies of APIs - and the "Bad Parts". This book has helped me in many ways including:1) Planning routes2) Interactive testing (using Postman)3) Dipping my toes into some BDD using Behat4) Informing me about JSON-API conventions5) Making pagination less of a strenuous exercise6) Thinking about embedded resources7) Pointing me to great docs regarding OAuth8) Giving a lucid description of HATEOAS9) Plugging his own amazing Fractal libraryAlthough there isn't a full 'cookbook' style - I appreciate the brevity as the author quotes Sweet Brown's infamous "Ain't nobody got time for that."

Generally a great outline of API basics. I like the attitude (even if offensive at times) as it made reading technical outlines engaging and kept me going. I don't think it was intended to be a manual for APIs but a an overview of pitfalls and ways to avoid them. I actually appreciated that; a competent developer should be able to build their first API without taking collegiate level course just on API development. The book didn't cover a few different aspects I would have liked; a few more chapters would've been apt. Quick outline:Caching methods are important in an API. For example, caching a read request with it's parameters and the expected response is very useful in a lot of "Read Only" APIs. Caching API requests is different from caching web-app requests in a variety of manners and I felt like it was overlooked.API authentication is implemented in more ways than suggested. In fact, most of the APIs I've consumed professionally (outside of the biggies like FB, Twitter, etc...) use a simple token generation system that I feel wasn't really covered. The closest the book got was the "Digest Authentication" method which only kinda describes token auth. It really could've had an entire multi-page section on how one would use provisioned tokens for auth, how to issue and manage and revoke those tokens, and what some best practices are implemented in a simple token system.Rate limiting techniques are not all approached. Many web developers will have used automated techniques on place (CloudeFlare, their teams dev-ops dealing with it, etc...). But defining a new API will require an understanding of how to implement such things like token buckets. This book doesn't touch on these issues at all.Last I heard the author is possibly planning a second addition for next year (2017). I hope the author includes some of these implementation options. If you're a competent developer staring down your first API project this book will give you an overview of APIs you need.

If you have ever built an API or had an interest in building one you should get this book. The book is a great source to learn about best practices and how to execute those practices in building your own API. Phil also offers insight to how certain APIs, such as Facebook and Twitter, differ in their API design and how may/may not fall short to best practice. This insight gives you a better understanding as to a proper API should function and behave. Overall this book is a great source for how one should develop an API the right way!TL:DR Every developer who has every built an API or considered building one should have this on their bookshelf!

Nice book. Pragmatic approach. Sometimes with humor. But.. Price 25$, as to me - overpriced. No application which u build through the book. Lack of concrete examples in serious chapters.

As an old embedded software engineer, this is a great book to introduce the concepts of APIs and data models with modern protocols and tools. It doesn't dive too deep into the details, but provides a good foundation to start with. Build APIs you Won't Hate is easy to read, laid out well, and provides a pragmatic approach. Good read.

In "Build APIs You Won't Hate" Phil explains the pros and cons to various approaches across different components of writing a Web API. The book also covers what some APIs do poorly and how they can be improved. Phil shows code examples but also provides resources that also span different languages/and frameworks. Mr. Sturgeon's book won't build an API for you, but it'll set you off on the right foot. If you're anything like me you'll have a few chuckles while your at it. Even as an experienced developer and having both created and consumed numerous APIs I was still able to learn a lot from this book. I consider this "Building APIs You Won't Hate" a great resource in my arsenal.

Extremely introductory. Gives virtually no actual information on how to build an API, and instead spends much of it's time talking about basic theory (pages and pages of examples of json). I was particularly interested in learning how to implement OAuth 2.0, but the author's recommendation was basically "use library A or library B". There is nothing in this book that can't be found with a 20 minute Google search.

Between this book & the documentation for OAuth Server from The PHP League (of which the author is a member), my questions regarding implementing an API were all answered. These are things that developers do every day but, until I found this book, I couldn't quite put my finger on a comprehensive collection of best practices. Beyond best practices, Sturgeon also describes where the big names (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) deviate from those practices and what he, himself, does at his day job.All in all, this book shows you the pitfalls to avoid and gives you the tools necessary to do so.

Un muy buen libro para empezar o para repasar conceptos. Está escrito de manera muy dinámica y fácil.

I strongly recommend everyone to read this book irrespective of their experience.

I borrowed this book from a friend in Vancouver. I was so impressed I went out and brought a copy myself.An excellent read, and great as reference. Very accurate with how it's following Roy Fielding's REST concepts. It's not super wordy - it's all meat and none of the 'fluff' you get with a lot of technical books. I can't stress enough how useful this book is.I remember listening to Phil on a podcast (I believe it was Fullstack Radio). A super knowledgeable and entertaining guy.I'll definitely be purchasing updated editions as he releases them.

Extremely informative and well written book. Covers key aspects in a clear and concise matter. Can't wait to get started on building and improving API's!

A nice book with many useful advises and concret examples. A must-read before beginning to write any api related project. Too often IT books are somewhat outdated. This one isn't.