Patterns for API Design

Book presentation and breakout sessions at API community event

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:00:00 +0000

Daniel and Olaf presented on “API First with ‘Patterns for API Design’” at Kennisplatform API’s speciale editie, a regular event organized by the nation-wide API community in the Netherlands:

It is good practice to base API designs on client needs, follow a repeatable process and respect existing guidelines. Structuring the design thinking helps to concentrate on the task at hand and to avoid mistakes. This presentation shows how "Patterns for API Design" can support API design processes such as ADDR for a pleasant developer experience both on the client and on the provider side.

Their presentation slides are available for download here (PDF).

The following patterns were presented and discussed (among others):

The event, the keynote presentation and the following two breakout sessions on “Top 5 API Patterns and Design Decisions” and “When, whom and how to notify (not only in an emergency)” (about asynchronous communication and APIs) were very well received. See this LinkedIn discussion (and several more). A big “thank you” to all participants and the event organizers!

Pattern Adoption Story: Dutch Government & Energy Sector, Part 5

Wed, 25 Jun 2025 08:00:00 +0000

It’s a wrap! Ton Donker and his reading group contributed the fifth and final part of their pattern story Dutch Government & Energy Sector. It now covers the remaining eleven patterns from our book:

If you would like to share a pattern adoption story too, please contact us at info@microservice-api-patterns.org.

Pattern Adoption Story: Dutch Government & Energy Sector, Part 4

Mon, 26 May 2025 08:00:00 +0000

Ton Donker contributed a fourth part to the pattern story Dutch Government & Energy Sector. It now covers twelve additional patterns from our book, 33 in total:

If you would like to share a pattern adoption story too, please contact us at info@microservice-api-patterns.org.

"Patterns for API Design" translated to Chinese, Korean, Portuguese

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 13:00:00 +0000

We recently learned that three translations of our book have been published:

Chinese: API設計模式｜簡化整合的訊息交換技術, GOTOP, 2024. Chinese Traditional Edition. ISBN: 9786263248533
Korean: 마이크로서비스 API 디자인 패턴 [쉬운 통합을 위한 결합도 최적화 전략], Acornpub, 2024. ISBN: 9791161759241
Portuguese (Brazil): Padrões para Desenho de API: Simplificando a Integração com Troca de Mensagens de Baixo Acoplamento (Portuguese Edition), Bookman, 22 Dec. 2024. ISBN: 9788582606605

Happy reading!

올라프 짐머만 (Olaf Zimmermann), 미르코 스토커 (Mirko Stocker), 다니엘 뤼브케 (Daniel Lübke), 우베 즈둔 (Uwe Zdun), 세자레 파우타소 (Cesare Pautasso)

"Patterns for API Design" at API Conference and W-JAX 2024

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Our co-author and principal consultant Daniel Lübke has given several presentations about our API design pattern language at industry conferences: First, he talked about the integration of our patterns into the ADDR process by James Higginbotham at the API Conference in Berlin (speaker/session information) and then at the W-JAX conference in Munich. Additionally, he discussed the importance of API lifecycle management in a second talk at W-JAX (speaker/session information).

This is the landing page for “Patterns for API Design” on this website.

Refactoring to Patterns: Seven API Refactorings Published at EuroPLoP24

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 22:59:00 +0000

We presented more seven interface refactorings at this year’s EuroPLoP conference: Extract Information Holder, Inline Information Holder, Extract Operation, Rename Operation, Make Request Conditional, Encapsulate Context Representation, and Introduce Version Identifier.

Again, we received motivating feedback and constructive criticism in the writer’s workshop. Starting from stakeholder concerns and API design smells was seen to be useful, and the detailed guidance by example appreciated. The open-access paper, to appear in the ACM Digital Library, is available for download via the publications page on the Interface Refactoring Catalog (IRC) website.

Our Patterns in Action in Industry and Academia

Sat, 08 Jun 2024 05:38:00 +0000

We are delighted to see our patterns being used in industry and academia. This news item will share some updates from external sources and our own related work. And our book even won an award!

Daniel and Olaf presented full-day workshops at two conferences this spring, the API Conference 2024 in London, UK, and JAX 2024 in Mainz, Germany. Daniel will also speak at the W-JAX 2024 conference in the fall.

Five of our patterns increase the understandability of API design, according to a controlled experiment run by Stuttgart University! Well, four do; Request Bundle aims to improve performance. A paper reporting this experience has just been presented in the main research track at ICSA 2024; experiment setup and result presentation won a Distinguished Artifact Award. You can find the author’s copy (pre-print) of the paper here (PDF). Other academics use our patterns for research in the area of API design tools as well. According to Google Scholar, almost thirty papers have cited our book already.

We have also been busy with our related Interface Refactoring Catalog, a “collection of API refactorings and related architectural refactorings” that use API design patterns. Eight interface refactorings were workshopped at EuroPLoP 2023 (see our trip report), and we will present the next seven refactorings at EuroPLoP 2024 in July.

Finally, Olaf and Mirko were awarded the “Best Publication Award” 2023/2024 at their university OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences. The jury praised the book for its practical relevance and international impact. We are very proud of this peer recognition!

Pattern Adoption Story: Dutch Government & Energy Sector, Part 3

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 08:00:00 +0000

Ton Donker and his readers group have been busy. The pattern story Dutch Government & Energy Sector now covers seven additional patterns:

Do you have a pattern adoption story to share? Please get in touch with us at info@microservice-api-patterns.org.

Pattern Adoption Story: Dutch Government & Energy Sector, Part 2

Fri, 25 Aug 2023 08:00:00 +0000

The pattern story Dutch Government & Energy Sector by Ton Donker has been growing with the coverage of new patterns. So even if you’ve already checked it out, it’s worth revisiting!

The following patterns are now discussed in the story:

We are looking forward to more pattern adoption stories from the community. If you would like to share one, please contact us at info@microservice-api-patterns.org.

Tech Lead Journal Podcast, API Conference, Pattern Story Update

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 18:00:00 +0000

Daniel Lübke was interviewed by Henry Suryawirawan in the Tech Lead Journal Podcast #125. They covered a range of topics, from book writing to API design best practices to the Microservices Domain-Specific Language (MDSL). A transcript and lots of memorable quotes are also included, for example:

Design architecture is always about decisions, and decisions have these nasty aspects of you get something, but you lose something. If you go through the right door, you can’t go through the left door.

Daniel also gave our talk at the API Conference in London:

“API Design with Patterns: Endpoint Roles, Message Structures, Evolution Strategies” (abstract)

Last but not least, the pattern story Dutch Government & Energy Sector by Ton Donker has been growing with the coverage of new patterns. So even if you’ve already checked it out, it’s worth revisiting!