Using JSON for Sending and Receiving Data
In old days sending and receiving API requests were done mostly in XML and HTML. But these days, JSON(Javascript Object Notation) has largely become the format for sending and receiving API data. This is because with XML it was very difficult to decode and encode the data.
Javascript has an inbuilt method to parse JSON data through fetch API because JSON is primarily made for it. But today many programming languages like Python and PHP support the parse method to manipulate JSON data.
In Python json.loads() and json.dumps() are used for working with JSON data.
Use new Endpoints
While designing a REST API, you should HTTP methods such as GET POST PUT PATCH DELETE are already performing basic CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) operations. There are many others such as COPY PURGE LINK UNLINK .
Status code in Error Handling
Using regular HTTP status codes will be always helpful to respond to the requests made to your API it will help us to know what is happening and whether the request is successful or unsuccessful.
Use SSL for security
SSL stands for secure socket layer. It plays an important role in the security of the design rest API and makes it less risky from the attack of malicious attacks.
Security factors that should be taken into consideration are making the communication between client and server so that the client should not get more than what they have requested.
The clear difference between the URL of an API is HTTP and HTTPS.
https://mysite.com/posts runs on SSL.
https://mysite.com/posts does not run on SSL.
Clear with documentation.
While making a REST API documentation should be provided clearly so that it will figure out how to use it correctly relevant endpoints of the API should be provided.
One of the most used and easy API testing tools is Postman it has very simple documentation.
Conclusion
So these are the best API practices that can be used to build REST APIs. So that it will make the process of the API request easier.