front matter
The job of a software developer has changed dramatically in the last decade. Advanced features like single sign-on, persistence, synchronization across devices, and sharing have become standardized and accepted as commonplace. To the small shop, developing these necessary features is often more work than building the application itself.
REST APIs opened the door for developers to build applications with greater focus on their core values and less on incidental features. Initially, it was up to each provider to create bespoke documentation and client libraries. Swagger and OpenAPI were born to establish a common language to describe REST APIs and make consuming and producing these APIs quicker and more effective.
In this book, Josh and Lukas take a holistic approach to teaching API design and implementation. Using interesting and relevant examples, they first teach the reader how to document an existing API with OpenAPI literacy. Then, they expand that core knowledge to introduce design-first techniques. OpenAPI wouldn’t be the same without the awesome tools and open source software that make it so easy to use, and this book explores some powerful ones that will help readers design, build, share, and investigate all sorts of REST APIs.