This book shows how to enhance an institution's presence on the Web with tools that integrate a variety of handy, popular programs. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) are software tools that help different programs work together, and Michel shows readers how to integrate them into existing library websites as well as use them to launch new kinds of services. Offering step-by-step guidance, this book Uses real-world examples to show how APIs can be used to promote library materials and events, visualize data, educate patrons, and mobilize library services Demonstrates how to create and manage widgets for photo galleries, instant reporting on computer/printer availability, featured book titles and book reviews from library users, tracking usage data, and many other library functions Includes instructions for working with popular tools such as Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter, Google Charts, OCLC, WordPress, Goodreads, LibraryThing, and the Hathi Trust Provides plentiful screenshots, snippets of HTML code, and easy-to-follow samples to ensure that even novices will feel comfortable integrating APIs into their marketing plans Focusing on widely adopted tools that all have immediate, useful applications, this practical book will help extend any library’s reach.

"Every developer working with the Web needs to read this book." -- David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Rails framework "RESTful Web Services finally provides a practical roadmap for constructing services that embrace the Web, instead of trying to route around it." -- Adam Trachtenberg, PHP author and EBay Web Services Evangelist You've built web sites that can be used by humans. But can you also build web sites that are usable by machines? That's where the future lies, and that's what RESTful Web Services shows you how to do. The World Wide Web is the most popular distributed application in history, and Web services and mashups have turned it into a powerful distributed computing platform. But today's web service technologies have lost sight of the simplicity that made the Web successful. They don't work like the Web, and they're missing out on its advantages. This book puts the "Web" back into web services. It shows how you can connect to the programmable web with the technologies you already use every day. The key is REST, the architectural style that drives the Web. This book: Emphasizes the power of basic Web technologies -- the HTTP application protocol, the URI naming standard, and the XML markup language Introduces the Resource-Oriented Architecture (ROA), a common-sense set of rules for designing RESTful web services Shows how a RESTful design is simpler, more versatile, and more scalable than a design based on Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) Includes real-world examples of RESTful web services, like Amazon's Simple Storage Service and the Atom Publishing Protocol Discusses web service clients for popular programming languages Shows how to implement RESTful services in three popular frameworks -- Ruby on Rails, Restlet (for Java), and Django (for Python) Focuses on practical issues: how to design and implement RESTful web services and clients This is the first book that applies the REST design philosophy to real web services. It sets down the best practices you need to make your design a success, and the techniques you need to turn your design into working code. You can harness the power of the Web for programmable applications: you just have to work with the Web instead of against it. This book shows you how.

As a web user, you'll no doubt have noticed some of the breathtaking applications available in today's modern web, such as Google Maps and Flickrdesktop applications than the old style web sites you are used to. You've probably also wished that you could create such things, and then thought "nahhh, I'd need to know a lot of complicated code to be able to even start creating sites like these." Well, think again. There is a lot of complicated code involved in cutting-edge "Ajax-style" web applications, but a lot of the hard work is already done for you, and available on the Web. JavaScript libraries exist to provide most of that Ajax/DOM Scripting functionality out of the box. Application programming interfaces (APIs) exist to allow you to transplant complicated applications such as Google Maps and Flickr right into your own web sites. And hosting services such as Flickr and YouTube provide all you need to store and retrieve your media (be it images, video, or whatever) at your leisure, without having to worry about bandwidth issues and file naming nightmares. All you need to know is enough to successfully wire together all this functionality successfully and responsibly, and this book shows you how. It starts from the very beginning of your journey, showing you what's available, what you need, and how to set up an effective development environment. After a solid base has been built, it shows you how to build up each aspect of your site, including storing, retrieving, and displaying content, adding images and video to your site, building effective site navigation and laying it all out beautifully using CSS, promoting your content so you will attract visitors to your site, and adding special effects to enhance usability and design asthetics...all with ready-made functionality available on the Web! Life as a web developer has never been easier.

The popularity of REST in recent years has led to tremendous growth in almost-RESTful APIs that don’t include many of the architecture’s benefits. With this practical guide, you’ll learn what it takes to design usable REST APIs that evolve over time. By focusing on solutions that cross a variety of domains, this book shows you how to create powerful and secure applications, using the tools designed for the world’s most successful distributed computing system: the World Wide Web. You’ll explore the concepts behind REST, learn different strategies for creating hypermedia-based APIs, and then put everything together with a step-by-step guide to designing a RESTful Web API. Examine API design strategies, including the collection pattern and pure hypermedia Understand how hypermedia ties representations together into a coherent API Discover how XMDP and ALPS profile formats can help you meet the Web API "semantic challenge" Learn close to two-dozen standardized hypermedia data formats Apply best practices for using HTTP in API implementations Create Web APIs with the JSON-LD standard and other the Linked Data approaches Understand the CoAP protocol for using REST in embedded systems

Summary A Web API is a platform with a web-style interface developers can use to implement functionality. Well-designed APIs feel like a natural extension of the application, rather than just a new interface into the backend database. Designing Web APIs based on use cases allows an organization to develop irresistible APIs, which developers can consume easily and which support the business values of that organization. Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology It takes a village to deliver an irresistible web API. Business stakeholders look for an API that works side-by-side with the main product to enhance the experience for customers. Project managers require easy integration with other products or ways for customers to interact with your system. And, developers need APIs to consistently interoperate with external systems. The trick is getting the whole village together. This book shows you how. About the Book Irresistible APIspresents a process to create APIs that succeed for all members of the team. In it, you'll learn how to capture an application's core business value and extend it with an API that will delight the developers who use it. Thinking about APIs from the business point of view, while also considering the end-user experience, encourages you to explore both sides of the design process and learn some successful biz-to-dev communication patterns. Along the way, you'll start to view your APIs as part of your product's core value instead of just an add-on. What's Inside Design-driven development Developing meaningful use cases API guiding principles How to recognize successful APIs About the Reader Written for all members of an API design team, regardless of technical level. About the Author Kirsten Hunter is an API evangelist who helps developers and business stakeholders understand, design, and deliver amazing APIs. Table of Contents UNDERSTANDING WEB APIs What makes an API irresistible? Working with web APIs API First Web services explained DESIGNING WEB APIs Guiding principles for API design Defining the value for your API Creating your schema model Design-driven development Empowering your developers

Design and build Web APIs for a broad range of clients—including browsers and mobile devices—that can adapt to change over time. This practical, hands-on guide takes you through the theory and tools you need to build evolvable HTTP services with Microsoft’s ASP.NET Web API framework. In the process, you’ll learn how design and implement a real-world Web API. Ideal for experienced .NET developers, this book’s sections on basic Web API theory and design also apply to developers who work with other development stacks such as Java, Ruby, PHP, and Node. Dig into HTTP essentials, as well as API development concepts and styles Learn ASP.NET Web API fundamentals, including the lifecycle of a request as it travels through the framework Design the Issue Tracker API example, exploring topics such as hypermedia support with collection+json Use behavioral-driven development with ASP.NET Web API to implement and enhance the application Explore techniques for building clients that are resilient to change, and make it easy to consume hypermedia APIs Get a comprehensive reference on how ASP.NET Web API works under the hood, including security and testability

Whether you’re sharing data between two internal systems or building an API so users can access their data, this practical book provides everything you need to build web service APIs with PHP. Author Lorna Jane Mitchell uses code samples, real-world examples, and advice based on her extensive experience to guide you through the process—from the underlying theory to methods for making your service robust. PHP is ideally suited for both consuming and creating web services. You’ll learn how to use this language with JSON, XML, and other web service technologies. Explore HTTP, from the request/response cycle to its verbs, headers, and cookies Determine whether JSON or XML is the best data format for your application Get practical advice for working with RPC, SOAP, and RESTful services Use a variety of tools and techniques for debugging HTTP web services Choose the service that works best for your application, and learn how to make it robust Learn how to document your API—and how to design it to handle errors