Fallthrough An Exploration of APIs, Versioning, & HTTP
12 snips
Mar 10, 2025 
Jamie Tanna, a Senior Software Engineer at Elastic and co-maintainer of the OpenAPI2Go code generator, joins the conversation to dive deep into the world of APIs. He discusses the critical aspects of API design and the often-overlooked intricacies of versioning, including how to communicate breaking changes effectively. The role of documentation is emphasized, with Tanna advocating for a strategic approach to clarity and user experience. They also explore the complexity of HTTP status codes and the ongoing debate between XML and JSON in API interactions.
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Separate Semantics and Transport
- Separate API semantics from transport protocols (HTTP, gRPC).
- Don't encode transport-specific error handling into application logic.
Idempotent Deletes
- For idempotent deletes, return 204 when the deletion occurs.
- Return 404 when the resource is already gone.
HTTP Status Code Consistency
- Pick an HTTP status code strategy and stick with it consistently.
- Consistency matters more than strict adherence to a specific approach.