A history and future of Web APIs

Jack Kopecky; Paul Fremantle; Rich Boakes

doi:10.1515/itit-2013-1035

A history and future of Web APIs

Jack Kopecky, Paul Fremantle, Rich Boakes

School of Computing

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Abstract

Distributed information systems predominantly have client-server architectures, as does the Web itself. In this article, we review the evolution of the interface of client-server distributed systems, from Messaging and RPC systems that predate the Web, to RESTful Web APIs. We highlight the often overlooked importance of the client-server interface in Web applications, and we reference historic and current systems to discuss the roles of "Web Service" technologies and Service-Oriented Architectures. Considering the future, we point out four directions in which we can see Web APIs moving, including the incorporation of hypermedia and semantics.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	90-97
Journal	Information Technology
Volume	56
Issue number	3
Early online date	31 May 2014
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1515/itit-2013-1035
Publication status	Published - Jun 2014

Keywords

Programming Techniques,
Distributed programming,
Software architectures
History of Computing Systems

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10.1515/itit-2013-1035

ITIT-13-1035-1Submitted manuscript, 316 KBLicence: CC BY-SA

http://www.degruyter.com/dg/viewarticle/j$002fitit.2014.56.issue-3$002fitit-2013-1035$002fitit-2013-1035.xml;jsessionid=1D2072DFAE3CD91F8F4ED390040EEAF0

Cite this

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A history and future of Web APIs

Abstract

Keywords

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