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What is a Good API? A Survey on the Use and Design of Application Programming Interfaces

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Internet of Everything (IOECON 2023)

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Abstract

In the Internet of Everything context, relevant and valuable connections between people, data, processes, and things are core elements. Machine-to-Machine (M2M) connections can be achieved, for example, by using application programming interfaces (APIs). However, investigating quality criteria of APIs has not yet gained significant traction in computing, or computing education research. In this work, we present a study of quality criteria for APIs to identify which factors developers rate as important when it comes to an API’s quality. We then discuss how we can possibly quantify these factors. To achieve these goals, an online survey with experienced developers was conducted (n = 19). The results reveal that developers seem to appreciate established, stable solutions, the availability of examples, and a community. Developers also consider it important that an API can be extended, and integrated into an existing framework. However, strong trends among the criteria were not identified, as many factors play a role when choosing an API. Therefore more research is required to provide guidance to (future) software developers on how they can improve the design of their APIs.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIPF Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education, Frankfurt am Main, Germany

    Natalie Kiesler & Daniel Schiffner

Authors
  1. Natalie Kiesler
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  2. Daniel Schiffner
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Natalie Kiesler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Teresa Pereira

  2. Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA

    John Impagliazzo

  3. University of Minho, Guimarães, Portugal

    Henrique Santos

  4. National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China

    Juan Chen

Appendix

Appendix

1.1 Survey Questions

Section I - General Questions and Prior Experience

  1. 1.

    Current job title

  2. 2.

    Your programming experience in years

  3. 3.

    Your experience in using APIs in years

  4. 4.

    How many APIs from other developers have you used so far?

  5. 5.

    How did you develop your competencies related to APIs?

  6. 6.

    Which types of APIs are you using?

  7. 7.

    In which context are you using APIs (e.g., education, research data center, natural language processing, etc.)?

  8. 8.

    Which programming language(s) do you prefer to use for working with an API?

  9. 9.

    For which interfaces do you use APIs?

Section II - Criteria of Good APIs

  1. 1.

    Assume there are several APIs available to choose from. How important are the following features of an API to you, when you have a choice of which API to use?

  2. 2.

    How important are the following factors when using an API?

Section III - Criteria for Using an API

  1. 1.

    Open API architectures (such as REST) offer creative freedom in API design. Is this flexibility a factor that drives you to use them?

  2. 2.

    Please explain your selection regarding flexibility as a factor (see previous question).

  3. 3.

    Which criteria do you use to evaluate the complexity of integrating a new API into an existing system/framework?

  4. 4.

    Have you ever encountered cases where the criteria you mentioned regarding the complexity of an API did not play a role in your choice?

  5. 5.

    What factors in your system architecture make it easier for you to integrate existing APIs?

  6. 6.

    Which challenges (due to the API and the system) have you already experienced when integrating third-party APIs?

  7. 7.

    Do you have ideas on how to overcome these challenges?

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© 2024 ICST Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering

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Kiesler, N., Schiffner, D. (2024). What is a Good API? A Survey on the Use and Design of Application Programming Interfaces. In: Pereira, T., Impagliazzo, J., Santos, H., Chen, J. (eds) Internet of Everything. IOECON 2023. Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering, vol 551. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51572-9_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51572-9_4

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-031-51571-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-51572-9

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