Defining and Validating an API Design

Defining an API involves working together with stakeholders to reach a point where everyone agrees that the API will work well in a real-life scenario. This chapter will teach you the different techniques you can use to validate an API design. You will learn how to define the capabilities of your API by distilling the information you obtained during the strategy step. You will also learn how to use API mocks to prototype your API so that stakeholders can test it and reach a point where your definition is validated. You will learn that API mocks are fake versions or imitations of APIs. Mocks let you have an API that’s ready to be tested without you having to build it first.

This chapter will begin by showing you what API capabilities are and how you can define them. You’ll learn how to perform a use case analysis to define the functional requirements of your API product. You’ll also see how business requirements, integration...