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How can you effectively handle API versioning and maintenance in large-scale projects?

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API versioning and maintenance are essential aspects of software design, especially for large-scale projects that involve multiple clients, platforms, and dependencies. However, managing different versions of an API and ensuring its reliability, security, and compatibility can be challenging and time-consuming. In this article, you will learn some best practices and strategies to handle API versioning and maintenance effectively and efficiently.

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Eduardo Janicas

EMEA Integration Engineering Practice Lead at Stripe
Astrid Bogran

IT Manager Systems Analyst at Pan-American Life Insurance Group
Daman Kumar

Senior Full Stack Developer | Senior Software Engineer (L3) @Saama | @Ex-Freedom | @Ex-Intygrate | React, Nodejs…

1 Why versioning matters

API versioning is the process of creating and maintaining different versions of an API that serve different purposes, features, or requirements. Versioning allows you to introduce changes, updates, or improvements to your API without breaking the existing functionality or compatibility with the clients that use it. Versioning also helps you to document and communicate the evolution of your API and its capabilities over time. However, versioning also introduces complexity and overhead, as you need to manage multiple versions of your API, ensure their consistency and quality, and avoid conflicts or errors.

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Daman Kumar

Senior Full Stack Developer | Senior Software Engineer (L3) @Saama | @Ex-Freedom | @Ex-Intygrate | React, Nodejs, Typescript, Nextjs
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An API versioning on the website can make your project flexible if in the future you want to restructure your API data and add or remove some features or functionality without affecting or breaking your APIs for all the users who are currently consuming your APIs

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2 How to choose a versioning scheme

There are different ways to implement API versioning, such as using URL paths, query parameters, headers, or media types. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages, depending on your use case, preferences, and constraints. For example, using URL paths is simple and intuitive, but it can clutter your API endpoints and make them less readable. Using headers or media types is more flexible and elegant, but it can be less visible and harder to debug. The most important thing is to choose a versioning scheme that is consistent, clear, and easy to use for both you and your clients.

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Paul Kimmel

Positive, collaborative pro adept at bridging business units. Focus on scalable, maintainable code & eliminating technical debt. #Teamwork #CodeExcellence
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There are design principles for this. In the case of APIs you follow the open closed principle from SOLID. Your APIs are open for extension closed for modification. This means when you add new behaviors you extend the interface. Unless you are correcting a bug you don’t modify an existing interface. The end points are essentially methods. The methods are contracts. Don’t change the contract but you can add new elements.

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Sandeep K.

Software Engineering Leader | IIM, Raipur
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Versioning scheme of API depends upon business. if API is being offered as product and third party companies are using it and you are charging for it, then it makes sense to use versioning in URL to reduce the errors and keep the explicit backward compatibility with sample pattern: /api/v1/resource if usage of API for internal products and limited to organization, we prefer to use header and media type practice. Sample header: GET /api/resource API-Ver: 1.0

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3 How to follow semantic versioning principles

Semantic versioning is a set of rules and conventions that help you to assign meaningful and standardized version numbers to your API. The basic format of semantic versioning is MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH, where each component indicates the level of change and impact of your API updates. For example, a major version change means that you have introduced breaking changes that are not backward compatible, a minor version change means that you have added new features or functionality that are backward compatible, and a patch version change means that you have fixed bugs or errors that are backward compatible. Semantic versioning helps you to communicate the expectations and implications of your API changes to your clients and avoid confusion or conflicts.

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Astrid Bogran

IT Manager Systems Analyst at Pan-American Life Insurance Group
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Example of semantic versioning for an API: Let's say you have an API for a fictional messaging service: - Version 1.0.0: Initial release of the messaging API with basic functionalities such as sending and receiving messages. - Version 1.1.0: Addition of a new feature that allows users to attach files to messages. This is a backward-compatible change, so it's a minor version update. - Version 1.1.1: Bug fix for an issue where certain characters in messages were not being displayed correctly. This is a backward-compatible bug fix, so it's a patch version update. - Version 2.0.0: A major update where the API is redesigned, and some existing endpoints are deprecated or removed. This is a major version update due to incompatible API changes.

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4 How to design for backward compatibility

Backward compatibility is the ability of your API to work with older versions of itself or with clients that use older versions of your API. Backward compatibility is important for maintaining the stability and usability of your API and for minimizing the disruption and frustration of your clients. To design for backward compatibility, you should follow some best practices, such as avoiding breaking changes, deprecating features gradually and gracefully, providing fallbacks or alternatives, and documenting your changes clearly and thoroughly.

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Eduardo Janicas

EMEA Integration Engineering Practice Lead at Stripe
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At Stripe, we implement versioning with rolling versions that are named with the date they’re released (for example, 2017-05-24). Although new versions are backwards-incompatible, each one contains a small set of changes that make incremental upgrades relatively easy so that integrations can stay current.

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5 How to test and monitor your API

Testing and monitoring are crucial for ensuring the quality, performance, and security of your API. Testing allows you to verify that your API works as expected, meets the requirements and specifications, and does not introduce errors or bugs. Monitoring allows you to measure and track the usage, availability, and reliability of your API, as well as to detect and resolve issues or anomalies. To test and monitor your API, you should use tools and frameworks that support your versioning scheme, cover different scenarios and cases, and provide feedback and insights.

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6 How to solicit and incorporate feedback

Feedback is valuable for improving and evolving your API, as it helps you to understand the needs, expectations, and satisfaction of your clients and users. Feedback can come from various sources, such as surveys, reviews, ratings, comments, or analytics. To solicit and incorporate feedback, you should establish clear and open channels of communication, ask relevant and specific questions, listen and respond to the feedback, and prioritize and implement the changes that are most beneficial and feasible.

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7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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How can you effectively handle API versioning and maintenance in large-scale projects?

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3

4

5

6

7

1 Why versioning matters

2 How to choose a versioning scheme

3 How to follow semantic versioning principles

4 How to design for backward compatibility

5 How to test and monitor your API

6 How to solicit and incorporate feedback

7 Here’s what else to consider

Software Design

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How can you effectively handle API versioning and maintenance in large-scale projects?

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

1 Why versioning matters

2 How to choose a versioning scheme

3 How to follow semantic versioning principles

4 How to design for backward compatibility

5 How to test and monitor your API

6 How to solicit and incorporate feedback

7 Here’s what else to consider

Software Design

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