CODEWITHSUNDEEP
ruby-on-railsapi
user3576036
user3576036

Reputation: 1425

Need for versioning api

Can somebody please explain me what exactly is API versioning and why is it needed. I know how to create versions for api on a rails web app, but I really want to know why is it needed. Before somebody downvotes or flags or anything, I googled , I couldn't find any satisfying answer. I would really appreciate it if somebody answers this.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 36

Answers (2)

Severin
Severin

Reputation: 8588

The main reason for versioning your APIs is to provide a constant structure for everybody using them. Let's say you define an initial API for your service (v1) that you send out to your clients. After some time your app changes, and you maybe want to exclude some fields/add new ones. This would be a problem for the client, since their implementation of your API might break if some fields that they are expecting is missing. So you create a v2 with those features, without breaking the initial functionality.

Upvotes: 2

MrShemek
MrShemek

Reputation: 2483

API versioning allows you to have multiple versions of your API and use them at the same time. With this solution, you are assuring backward compatibility for all of the applications integrated with your API.

Simple example
Your API is used by 10 different applications. You are using Basic access authentication, but you noticed that it could be done better. So, you decided to use modify this and use Oauth.

No API versioning

You will have to wait for all of 10 applications to implement changes before releasing the new API version. Otherwise, you will lose the integration. Of course, you can use if/else statements in your code to distinguish which authentication method should you use but this will be not elegant.

API versioning

You can release new API version whenever you want. Then, you can inform your client, that the old API will be deprecated in 3 months, so they have time to implement changes on their side.

Also, you can ask them to add a param to all requests (to choose which API version they will use), and you can set it by the default to the new version. That will allow you to avoid problems with new applications that want to use your API.

Summary(in my opinion):
Pros
1. clean and elegant code (without additional if/else statements)
2. backward compatibility

Cons
1. sometimes you have to duplicate your code
2. it might look like a complex solution at the beginning but don't be scared

Here you can read about two options of API versioning - URL param and HTTP header

I hope that my explanation is clear and helps you understand API versioning

Upvotes: 2

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