Book Image

Designing API-First Enterprise Architectures on Azure

By : Subhajit Chatterjee
Book Image

Designing API-First Enterprise Architectures on Azure

By: Subhajit Chatterjee

Overview of this book

API-centric architectures are foundational to delivering omnichannel experiences for an enterprise. With this book, developers will learn techniques to design loosely coupled, cloud-based, business-tier interfaces that can be consumed by a variety of client applications. Using real-world examples and case studies, the book helps you get to grips with the cloudbased design and implementation of reliable and resilient API-centric solutions. Starting with the evolution of enterprise applications, you'll learn how API-based integration architectures drive digital transformation. You'll then learn about the important principles and practices that apply to cloud-based API architectures and advance to exploring the different architecture styles and their implementation in Azure. This book is written from a practitioner's point of view, so you'll discover ideas and practices that have worked successfully in various customer scenarios. By the end of this book, you'll be able to architect, design, deploy, and monetize your API solutions in the Azure cloud while implementing best practices and industry standards.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
1
Section 1: API-Led Architecture in the Digital Economy
4
Section 2: Build Reliable API-Centric Solutions
10
Section 3: Deliver Business Value for a Modern Enterprise

Constructs of an API

Before we start discussing the various architecture styles, let's get familiar with the different constructs that make up an API. Throughout this chapter, we will be using these terms and hence it is important to have a common understanding of them. The various parts that constitute an API are depicted here:

Figure 3.2 – Constructs of an API

The constructs of an API are explained in the following sections.

API operations or service contract

The interface definition of an API outlines the list of operations supported by the API. Each operation must be unique and should perform a single function or task; in other words, it follows the single-responsibility principle.  

Data contract or entity schema

The data contract defines the schema of the entities that participate in the various operations supported by the API. The entities can be simple or complex data types depending on the type of operation being...