JSON-API
JSON-API is a specification for how a client should interact with a server to manage, retrieve, and manipulate JSON data. It outlines a set of conventions for building APIs that use JSON as their data format, focusing on providing a standardized, language-agnostic way of creating and consuming APIs.
History
The JSON-API specification was initially proposed by Yehuda Katz and Steve Klabnik in 2013. Their goal was to create a standard to reduce the complexity of building and consuming APIs by providing a consistent approach to resource representation, request/response formats, and common operations like querying, sorting, filtering, pagination, and including related resources.
Core Concepts
- Resources: Everything in JSON-API is considered a resource or a collection of resources. A resource has an identifier, type, and attributes.
- Resource Relationships: Resources can have relationships with other resources, which are described using 'relationship' links.
- Endpoints: APIs following JSON-API conventions use endpoints that correspond to resource types.
- CRUD Operations: Standard operations like Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) are supported through HTTP methods like POST, GET, PATCH, and DELETE respectively.
- Query Parameters: JSON-API defines specific query parameters for filtering, sorting, pagination, and including related resources in responses.
Specification Features
- Compound Documents: Allows the server to send back additional related resources in a single response, reducing the number of requests needed.
- Error Objects: Provides a standardized way of returning error information.
- Fetching Resources: Supports fetching individual resources or collections of resources with detailed query parameters.
- Inclusion of Related Resources: The API can include related resources in the response using the 'include' parameter.
Advantages
- Interoperability: By following a common standard, developers can switch between different APIs with less friction.
- Consistency: Ensures a uniform way of handling requests and responses, which simplifies client-side code.
- Reduced Complexity: The specification reduces the amount of documentation needed to understand an API, as many conventions are predefined.
Implementation
Many programming languages and frameworks have libraries or tools to help implement JSON-API standards:
External Links
Related Topics