API Quick Reference: HTTP Verbs and Status Codes

• Quick reference guide for API's.

HTTP Verbs

• GET: Used to retrieve data from the server.
• POST: Used to send data to the server to create a resource.
• PUT: Used to send data to the server to update a resource.
• PATCH: Used to send data to the server to partially update a resource.
• DELETE: Used to delete a resource from the server.
• TRACE: Returns the full HTTP request received by the server, useful for debugging and diagnostic purposes.
• OPTIONS: Returns the HTTP methods supported by the server for a particular request URL.
• CONNECT: Converts the request connection to a transparent TCP/IP tunnel for secure communication.
• PURGE: Invalidates a cached resource.
• LOCK: Locks a resource for exclusive use by a client.
• UNLOCK: Unlocks a resource previously locked by a client.
• MKCOL: Creates a new collection resource.
• COPY: Copies a resource identified by the Request-URI to a specified destination URI.

HTTP Status Codes

• 1xx: Informational responses.
• 2xx: Success.
• 3xx: Redirection.
• 4xx: Client errors.
• 5xx: Server errors.

Response Headers

• Content-Type: Specifies the MIME type of the data in the response body.
• Content-Length: Specifies the length of the response body in bytes.
• Cache-Control: Specifies the caching behavior of the response.
• Location: Specifies the URI of a resource that can be used to retrieve the requested resource.
• Server: Specifies the name and version of the server software generating the response.
• Access-Control-Allow-Origin: Specifies which origins are allowed to access the resource.
• Set-Cookie: Specifies a cookie that should be stored by the client and sent back to the server in future requests.
• Expires: Specifies the date and time after which the response is considered stale.
• Last-Modified: Specifies the date and time the resource was last modified.

API Design

• REST (Representational State Transfer): A design pattern for building web services.
• SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol): A messaging protocol designed for exchanging structured data.
• GraphQL: A query language and runtime for building APIs.
• API Gateway: A service that manages, protects, and scales APIs.

API Architectures

• SOA (Service-Oriented Architecture): An architectural style for building distributed systems.
• Microservices: An architectural style for building complex applications as a suite of small, independent services.
• Serverless: A cloud computing execution model where the cloud provider manages infrastructure and auto-allocates resources.
• Event-Driven: An architectural style where the flow of data between components is triggered by events.
• RESTful API: An architectural style that uses HTTP requests such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE for data manipulation.

API Design Patterns

• Adapter Pattern: Converts the interface of a class into another interface that clients expect.
• Decorator Pattern: Adds behavior to an individual object dynamically.
• Proxy Pattern: Provides a surrogate or placeholder for another object to control access to it.
• Chain of Responsibility Pattern: Delegates commands to a chain of processing objects.
• Observer Pattern: Defines a one-to-many dependency between objects so that when one object changes state, all its dependents are notified and updated automatically.

API Security

• OAuth: An open standard for authorization used for protecting APIs.
• JWT (JSON Web Tokens): A standard for securely transmitting information between parties as a JSON object.
• SSL/TLS (Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security): Establishes a secure connection between a client and a server.
• API Key: A secret token that limits the number of requests to an API over a specific period.
• OpenID Connect: An authentication layer built on top of OAuth to allow user authentication across multiple domains.
• CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing): Enables resources from different domains to be requested on a web page.

API Testing

• Postman: A tool used for testing and debugging APIs.
• SoapUI: A tool for testing SOAP and REST web services.
• Swagger: A tool for designing, building, and testing APIs.
• JMeter: A tool for testing the performance of APIs.
• TestRail: A test management tool for planning, executing, and tracking API tests.
• Dredd: A command-line tool for testing API documentation against its backend implementation.
• REST Assured: A Java-based library for testing RESTful APIs.
• Karate DSL: A testing framework for API testing using Gherkin syntax.
• HTTPMaster: A tool for testing and debugging APIs.
• Assertible: A tool for testing and monitoring APIs with automated tests.

API Development

• Node.js: A JavaScript runtime for building server-side applications.
• Express: A framework for building web applications and APIs with Node.js.
• Django: A Python web framework for building web applications and APIs.
• Flask: A lightweight Python web framework for building web applications and APIs.
• Spring: A Java framework for building enterprise-level web applications and APIs.
• Swagger Editor: A tool for designing and documenting APIs using the OpenAPI Specification.
• Postman: A tool for testing and debugging APIs.
• Insomnia: A tool for designing, testing, and debugging APIs.
• Paw: A tool for designing and testing APIs on macOS.
• API Blueprint: A high-level API description language for building RESTful APIs.

API Implementation Platforms

• Firebase: A mobile and web application development platform.
• Backendless: A mobile and web application development platform allowing development and deployment without backend coding.
• Parse Server: An open-source version of the Parse backend to be deployed on any infrastructure.
• Amazon API Gateway: A fully managed service for developers to create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs.
• Microsoft Azure API Management: A managed service enabling users to publish, secure, transform, maintain, and monitor APIs.

API Performance

• Caching: A technique for improving API performance by storing responses in a cache.
• Throttling: A technique to limit the rate of requests to prevent overload.
• Load Balancing: Distributes traffic evenly across multiple servers to improve API performance.
• CDN (Content Delivery Network): Delivers content to users based on geographic location to improve API performance.
• Edge Computing: Computing paradigm that brings computation and data storage closer to the location where it's needed to reduce latency and improve API performance.

API Monitoring

• Pingdom: A tool for monitoring the uptime and performance of APIs.
• New Relic: Monitors the performance of APIs and web applications.
• Datadog: A monitoring and analytics platform for cloud-scale applications and APIs.
• Sumo Logic: A cloud-based log management and analytics platform.
• Loggly: A cloud-based log management platform for monitoring APIs and other applications.

API Standards

• JSON API: A specification for building APIs.
• HAL (Hypertext Application Language): A standard for building hypermedia-driven APIs.
• JSON-LD: A format for representing linked data on the web.
• OData (Open Data Protocol): A standard for building and consuming RESTful APIs.
• AsyncAPI: A specification for building event-driven APIs.

API Standard Organizations

• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium): An international community that develops web standards.
• IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force): Develops and promotes Internet standards.
• OASIS: Organization for the advancement of structured information standards.
• RESTful API Modeling Language (RAML): Describes RESTful APIs developed by Mulesoft.
• JSON API: A specification for building APIs that use JSON as the data format.

API Infrastructure

• Kubernetes: An open-source platform for managing containerized workloads and services.
• OpenShift: A container application platform that builds on top of Kubernetes.
• Docker Swarm: A native clustering and orchestration solution for Docker.
• Consul: A service mesh solution that provides service discovery, configuration, and segmentation capabilities.
• Istio: A service mesh solution that provides traffic management, security, and observability capabilities.

API Governance

• API Management: The process of creating, publishing, and monitoring APIs in a secure and scalable manner.
• API Monetization: Generates revenue from APIs by charging developers for use.
• API Versioning: Manages changes to APIs.

API Analytics

• API Analytics: Collects and analyzes on API usage and performance.
• API Gateway: Manages, protects, and scales APIs.

API Documentation

• OpenAPI: Specifies for building APIs in YAML or JSON format.
• API Blueprint: Describes RESTful APIs.
• RAML: Lists the language for describing RESTFul APIs
• Swagger UI: Visualizes and interacts APIs that have been described using the OpenAPI specification.
• Slate: Generates responsive API documentation.

API Deployment

• Heroku: A cloud platform for deploying and scaling web applications and APIs.
• AWS Elastic Beanstalk: A service for deploying and scaling web applications and APIs on AWS.
• Azure App Services: Deploys and scales web applications and APIs on Azure.
• Google App Engine: Deploys and scales web applications and APIs on GCP.
• Docker: Containerization platform used for package and deploying applications.
• AWS Lambda: Serverless compute service for running code in response to events.
• Azure Functions: Serverless compute services for running code in response to events.
• Google Cloud Functions: Serverless Compute Service for running code in response to events.
• Netlify: A cloud platform for deploying and managing static websites and APIs.
• Vercel: A cloud platform for deploying and managing static websites and APIs.

API Security

• OAuth: An open standard for authorization with social media platforms and APIs.
• OpenID connect: Authentication layer built on Oauth that authenticates across multiple domains.
• JSON Web Tokens (JWT): Method for representing claims securely between parts.
• Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS): Allows resources that fonts and java to be requested from another domain outside of its origination.

API Keys

• API Keys: Identifies an API client to the server and allows the client to access resources.

API Best Practices

• Versioning: Manages changes to APIs over time.
• Pagination: Breaks up large API responses into smaller, manageable chunks.
• Caching: Technique for improving API performance.
• Error Handling: Returns to meaningful error messages top API clients.
• HATEOAS: (Hypermedia as the Engine of Application State) Offers RESTful APIs that requires the API to provide links to related resources.

API Guides and Tools

• REST API Tutorial by Guru99
• A Beginner's Guide to HTTP and REST by Linode
• REST API Design: Resource Modeling by Oracle
• API Security Best Practices by Google Cloud
• API Governance Handbook by WS02
• API Studio: A web-based IDE design tool.
• Stoplight: A design, document and testing tool.
• Apigee: Lifecycle API management platform.
• Postman Learning Center: hub for designing developing and testing APIs.
• Azure API Management: used to publish and monitor APIs.