Application Programming Interface or API development is the key ingredient in developing functions and procedures that enable mobile app development to access data and communicate with different applications.
API development began in the early days of computing, well before personal computers were a thing. Before 2000, API development only catered to local systems. However, after the advancement of the technologies, API development became part and parcel of computing for remote data integration.
It is a set of standards that enables software to apply services or features of different platforms or devices for better services. Moreover, It is crucial in the modern app development process as it allows two apps to communicate with each other prominently. According to a survey, 90% of developers use API development, which has caused an urgent rush in the market.
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MMCGBL is a prime API development company. We have a team of over 150+ expert developers. Our excellence and quality work have been recognized and appreciated by our clients globally. Our 1000+ successful projects and prominent delivery time ratio in projects make us ideal for API development services.
Top 8 API Development Tools
API development is one of the most important elements for growth as it allows different apps to communicate with each other. For the development of effective communication and further key instructions, there are many API development tools available that API developers use.
Apigee- Management Tool
Google developed Apigee and it is one of the best API development tools. Apigee is a helpful tool that comes into use when a company is updating its legacy apps or facilitating data transfer between apps and services. Moreover, the Apigee API development tool is also used when an API developer builds connected or linked apps.
Apigee helps in API development, and if you have already developed an API, you can use Apigee to expose them directly while adding a management and visibility layer. You can also use the Apigee tool for API development in enabling SQA_based web services.
Dredd- API Testing Framework
Dredd is an HTTP tool used in API development and testing framework. It is used to validate the description of an API in the backend. This tool is a lot useful as it goes through the report thoroughly along with determining if the API is validated or not. This gives a brief idea of the app.
The key motive of Dredd is to read the description you have mentioned in your API development step by step, and it validates whether your API development and implementations reply with the responses described in the documentation.
APIMatic- Documentation Tool
APIMatic is a developer platform for website APIs. Developers use it to generate SDKs for their APIs for ten media. Moreover, it is also used to keep it in sync with the API updates.
APIMatic is a tool that enables the developers to convert API descriptions into multiple formats such as WADL, Swagger, RAML, etc.
APIMatic tool in API development enables fast integrations by providing multi-language SDKs with API reference docs, dynamic code samples, assisted authentication, and more.
Sandbox- Risk and Cost Associated
A sandbox is a tool in API development that helps offer a quick and easy mock RESTful API. It also reduces the risk and cost associated with third-party API calling during testing.
An API development Sandbox tool allows the concurrent testing and development to fast-track app development to fast-track app development cycles and reduces time-to-market. Sandbox also simulates scenarios with your API development for errors.
Postman- Interactive tool
Postman is yet another tool used for API development. The prime feature of this tool is to allow developers to evaluate the performance of the API by documenting and testing. Moreover, you can use this tool to set up the automation as it is an interactive tool.
SoapUI- Open-source testing tool
SoapUI is a tool used for open testing. It can operate on cross-platforms. Moreover, it can also automate both functional and non-functional tests. It is used for regression, compliance, executing, security, and load tests for Web APIs.
Swagger- Management tool
Swagger, in combination with Azure API Management, allows users to export their API definitions to Azure easily.
Swagger is an open-source framework that is used for API development. GettyImages, PayPal, and Microsoft use the Swagger tool.
JMeter
Many tools are used to test the functionalities, performance, readability, and security of any programming interface—one of the most popular and simple tools to perform API testing.
API development must-have features
API development and designing is a creative and mind-practising process. There are a few points that one must have in mind to develop an efficient design. There are a few features that must be added in the API development, as it will boost the development process and also help your team to stay on the same page.
Authorize and Authenticate the API
Authentication means verifying the right identity. In contrast, authentication means deciding if the verified user is permitted to act on a specific source. There is a very simple example that explains authentication; There is a guy who can get a resource (an authenticated user). However, he is not allowed to create a resource.
There are three most commonly used specifications for managing authorization and authentications, namely, OAuth, OAuth2, and JWT.
Get More Info: What is an API (Application Programming Interface) – A Full Guide For 2022
Pagination Process
Once the database is created, it will certainly grow, and once it grows, you will observe that some of the resources are taking longer time than usual to retrieve. It is much common to catch these objects and to create pagination.
Pagination is the process of determining the amount and frequency of data being displayed. After this, sorting is applied, which enables the user to receive the data as per the requirements, conditions applied, and modifications.
Due to these processes, the processing time minimizes and ensures high-level security and a great response time.
Cache Strategy
Developing a Cache strategy is a must because only by creating a correct cache strategy can you use the resources at a tremendously fast speed. It will reduce the cost of your requests once the data is ready for consumption in an in-memory database. There are many tools available for developing Cache strategies like Redis and Memcached.
API Development Wrappers
API Wrappers are language-specific containers or packages. They combine various sets of API calls into user-friendly functions. The wrapper also calls several API calls without interacting with the user.
HATEOAS- Client connection
HATEOAS stands for Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State and is one of the modules of REST application architecture. This feature contains the content, which consists of the link to other forms of media such as texts, images, videos, etc. These are called hypermedia.
One of the reasons why HATES is prominently used is because it enables the clients to interact with REST API with the help of responses that are provided by the server dynamically.
Error and Error Handling
It is a must to add an error-developing feature because you can only make the debugging process easier through a proper error handling feature. Error handling helps in identifying the problem and cause of problems. It is well established among the API developers that, apart from a few mistakes, the client has to contact support to resolve them. Some of the helpful error handling methods may include:
- Use error codes with well-known standards.
- Offering the right number of errors
- Describing the cause of the error
- Segregating domain and general errors.
API Development Validation Feature
API development validation feature means the verification of correctness of data. There are two types of API validation, namely, Server validation and Client-side validation.
In client-side validation, prompt feedback is given, for instance marking out the incorrect entry in red colour, the tooltip for correction, etc.
Server-side validation involves mundane tasks such as what kind of property it is (account number, email, etc.), validating if the property is required, or if the property is not needed if another property is already there.
API Development Testing
API development testing is similar to software testing. API development testing includes the testing of the APIs directly and the part of integration testing. It determines whether it meets performance, functionality, security, and reliability expectations. JMeter, Postman, and SoapUI are some of the most popular tools that are used for API testing.
What is API Development Architecture?
The API development Architecture is built on four individual entities: API Interface, API Controller, API Runtime, and API Data Bridge. All four entities work as API Architecture’s building block.
In API development, an Interface is important as it is responsible for defining the specifications that affect access to the external world. HTTP is the most ubiquitous protocol that carries the API payload. Therefore the API interface is defined in terms of the API endpoint URL, the port number, and the HTTP method. The API interface also defines additional HTTP headers.
API Controller acts as a building block that needs to control the ingress and egress traffic. API development requests and responses are catered to in the API controller block. Some of the most apparent control mechanisms include rate limiting and throttling. This is to ensure that the client applications do not misuse the API. It also guards against abuse of the API.
In API development architecture, the Runtime block takes the computing responsibility. API is a piece of software that performs a well-defined business logic serving the needs of the API’s client.
In API development architecture, the Data Bridge block is responsible for the data access. This architecture focuses on the implementation and depends on database drives and programming libraries run by the Runtime block.
Moreover, there are many additional components of API development and architecture. APIs do not live in isolation. Additionally, software built around APIs might leverage multiple such API development services.
Key Note
API development is vital as it eases the development process by enabling the programs to communicate data and functions quickly and safely. The API development boosts innovation because different developers can use the existing data and functionalities to build products.
There are various API development tools like Apigee, Dredd, APIMatic, Sandbox, Postman, SoapUI, etc. The tools and features mentioned above are the must-haves in API development. These features and tools can greatly impact the development process. API development is a whole different world filled with building opportunities. If you have a future project in API development, you should consider MMCGBL.
MMCGBL leads the path as an API development company. We have a team of experts who are experienced in completing and delivering similar projects on time.
We believe in problem-solving, which is why we have satisfied clients globally. We understand the core of the problem, and our team of experts comes up with innovative and effective solutions. We have completed more than 1000+ projects for which we have been awarded 20+ times.
