How deeply does API Design Patterns cover long-running operations pattern?

Defines a generic operation interface and progress metadata, but stops short of detailing every operational mechanism.

Long-running operations pattern

The long-running operations pattern is an API structure for representing work that continues after the initial request and exposing its status or result asynchronously.

The long-running operations pattern represents work that continues after an initial request. Instead of returning a completed result, an API returns an operation containing an identifier, completion state, eventual result or error, and optional metadata.

This structure improves asynchronous exports over a response that merely supplies a download location: consumers can inspect progress, while the operation metadata records completion percentage from 0 to 100. section 2.4.3

Exporting user messages

A POST to /{parent=users/*}/messages:export accepts an output configuration and returns Operation<ExportMessagesResponse, ExportMessagesMetadata>. The request can specify a file or Amazon S3 destination, compression, and encryption; the completed response echoes the output configuration.

How API Design Patterns covers it

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Also explained in

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The Design of Web APIs, Second EditionA long operation is an API interaction pattern in which work that exceeds normal request latency is initiated asynchronously and completed through later status checking or notification.

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Related concepts

pollinguses · Polling is the repeated checking or querying of a resource, system, or condition, often at intervals, to detect data, events, or state changes.
import/export patternused by · The import/export pattern is a reusable API structure for transferring substantial amounts of data into or out of a service while accommodating destinations, transformations, and asynchronous processing.
callbackused by · A callback is a function or other callable supplied to software for invocation later in response to a specified event, condition, or point in execution.
workflow jobuses · A workflow job is an executable unit of work that groups tasks or steps with the logic and requirements needed to run them.
Prefer headerconfigured by · The Prefer header is an HTTP request header field that lets a client communicate preferences about how a server should process a request.

This explainer was generated by Manning's knowledge graph from the text of API Design Patterns. The section links point to the parts of the book it draws on.