As the lead backend engineer of the Medilink project, I've designed our API using the OpenAPI specification. This experience has been both challenging and rewarding, teaching me valuable lessons about API design. In this post, I'll share my journey, the decisions I made, and the insights I gained along the way.
Introduction to the Medilink Project
Medilink is a healthcare platform designed to connect patients with medical professionals. Our API is crucial as it enables third-party developers to integrate our services into their applications, extending our reach and functionality.
Why I chose the OpenAPI Specification for the project?
When starting this project, I knew that following a standardized approach would be beneficial. I chose the OpenAPI specification for several reasons:
Industry standard: It's widely adopted and well-documented.
Data Validation: Check that the data flowing through your API (in both directions) is correct, during development and once deployed..
Clear contract: It provides a clear contract between API providers and consumers.
The Design Process
- Planning and Requirements
I began by listing all the resources our API needed to expose: patients, doctors, appointments, and prescriptions. For each resource, I outlined the operations we'd need to support.
- Defining Endpoints
I structured our endpoints to be RESTful and intuitive. For example:
GET /patients/{id} - Retrieve a patient's details
POST /appointments - Create a new appointment
PUT /prescriptions/{id} - Update a medical record
- HTTP Methods
I used HTTP methods to clearly indicate the action each endpoint performs:
GET for retrieving data
POST for creating new resources
PUT for updating existing resources
DELETE for removing resources
- Request/Response Payloads
I spent considerable time designing our request and response payloads. I aimed for consistency across endpoints and included only necessary fields to keep our API efficient.
Lessons That I Learnt
Consistency is key: Maintaining a consistent naming convention and structure across endpoints makes the API more intuitive for developers.
Documentation is crucial: Clear, comprehensive documentation saves time in the long run.
Error handling matters: I implemented detailed error messages and appropriate HTTP status codes, which greatly aids in debugging and improves the developer experience.
Tools and Technologies
For this project, I chose to write the OpenAPI specification in YAML format. YAML's human-readable structure made it easier to organize and maintain our API documentation.
To visualize and interact with the API design, I utilized the Swagger.io online editor. This tool proved invaluable as it allowed me to see real-time updates to the API documentation as I made changes to the YAML file. The Swagger editor provided instant feedback on any syntax errors or inconsistencies in the specification, helping me catch and correct issues early in the design process.
Conclusion
Designing the Medilink API has been a journey of continuous learning. The OpenAPI specification provided a solid foundation, but the real insights came from addressing the specific needs of our healthcare platform.