dretblog

How (API) Languages Evolve

APIs are languages: they specify how providers and consumers of capabilities communicate. The things that can be "said" in an API conversation are determined by the expressivity of the involved language. Modern Web APIs always are *composite languages*, they combine... Read more →

Data Access and API Strategy in the European Union

Last week saw a "Data Access and Transfer" workshop happening in Brussels, organized by the [European Commission](https://ec.europa.eu/commission/index_en)'s Directorates General for [Justice and Consumers (DG JUST)](https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/justice-and-consumers_en) and [Communications Networks, Content and Technology (DG CONNECT)](https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/communications-networks-content-and-technology_en). The intent of the workshop was to... Read more →

The Three Drivers of the API Economy

Explaining that APIs are *a big thing* nowadays rarely is necessary anymore. Both major scenarios of *APIs as a way to interface with partners or the public*, and *APIs as a way to structure your IT internally for greater agility*... Read more →

Linksets: Beyond Inline Hypermedia Controls

*Hypermedia* is based on the assumption that representations contain a mix of data and control information (think HTML's embedded links as the canonical example). Usually, that control information is mixed into or alongside the data, meaning that the producer of... Read more →

PubSub: A Short Introduction

Recently, [W3C](https://www.w3.org/) published the first working draft of a protocol called [PubSub](https://www.w3.org/TR/pubsub/). It is on the W3C TR track and thus intended to become a W3C recommendation. While the name is new, it is the protocol that previously has been... Read more →

API Usability Matters: UX and CX is like DX and ...

Being faster at designing and delivering new experiences and products has become one of the main rallying cries of "digital transformation". As a modern organization, you have to stop struggling with the IT side of your goals (or create artificial... Read more →

API Maps: Hypermedia API Design

*API First* is the approach of consciously designing APIs instead of treating them as by-products of implementation work. It is the same mindset that is popular for human-facing Web sites: Design these consciously, and they will be much more likely... Read more →

Whypermedia: Why use Hypermedia?

The question of whether hypermedia (sometimes referred to as the REST hypermedia constraint) is a worthwhile foundation for API design is debated quite often. One of the frequent counter-arguments is that designers and developers are not that familiar with hypermedia,... Read more →

Resource Profiles and Types

RFC 6906 defining "The 'profile' Link Relation Type" has been published a little while ago and I discussed it briefly when it was published. It has been picked up in a variety of places, and seeing where it is being... Read more →

JSON Schema: Why and How

Prompted by a thread on the IETF's JSON WG mailing list, I find myself wondering (again) why the current JSON landscape does not have an established schema language, and what it would take to change that. There is a long-expired... Read more →