The heart of each application development is an API (application programming interface). It is the communication point for applications, allowing software programs to engage with one another. The API sends a user request from the app to the webserver. The web server then answers that request via the API response.
APIs are also important for communicating with and updating our mobile apps.
In this article, we’ll go over some basic but important recommendations to keep in mind to develop a mobile app with APIs for increased productivity.
Let’s learn about them
Major Tips to Develop a Mobile App with APIs
Version your API (right from the beginning)
The API will need to change at some point in the future. It could be to add, remove, or modify a feature. When this happens, you may have to stop using that part of the API or allow the consuming application to be clear about which behavior and type of answer it expects to be returned.
Your API acts as a binding agreement between your backend and the apps that use it. You run the danger of one side changing the contract without the other knowing if you don’t use the correct versioning. With support for various API versions, you may continue to support users of your app who haven’t been able to upgrade to the most recent version of your app, which uses the most recent version of the app and is up to date on the most recent API modifications. Ignoring the API versioning would render the apps non-functional in the event that the API was modified.
Strategize and execute your caching policy carefully
It is advised that the CSS, HTML, and all pictures be stored locally to avoid the negative effects of a slow mobile network on the app’s performance. Owners of mobile apps have reported that the size of their HTML documents has shrunk from 200KB to a meagre 30KB. It’s also a good idea to keep all the non-changeable data, such as categories and main navigation, within the application.
This eliminates the requirement for a trip across the chosen mobile network, saving you the time and effort of pre-fetching data (queries, paginated results, user data, and so on) that will be loaded on the device without any additional requests.
Take account of security from the starting
Security is a big and potentially complex topic. This makes it especially difficult to add on in a fast in the event of a security breach.
Consider the following: data security in transit; data security at rest; improper or unauthorized API use; and potentially harmful or unexpected data with unintended consequences.
Don’t require unnecessary steps/requests
Individual discrete stages that demonstrate how the service can be utilized in the appropriate way are quite popular in mobile APIs. As an API designer, you should avoid having such discrete steps because they never serve as the right way of executing a mobile app.
Don’t return more data than you need to
The amount of data exchanged between the application and the server will, to some extent, influence the time it takes to make a request and receive a response. This affects not only how much time a person spends staring at a loading animation, but also how much money they spend on data charges.
Assign easy-to-understand names to API assets
The names you offer your API’s methods, objects, attributes, and parameters will have the greatest impact on how people who use it understand it. When building an API, it might be very tempting to use whatever terms or wordings come to mind immediately. However, like with all code, the words you choose have a significant impact on how the API is interpreted and expected to perform.
APIs with bad names are a huge source of misunderstanding. Confusion causes errors, which cause bugs, which cause delays and support expenses. Make good use of your time in naming.
Never forget your privacy policy and responsibilities
If you’re collecting user data (and you should be if your server logs requests), you’ll need a privacy policy that spells out how you’ll utilize it. You should also consider how you will store and protect the data. Particularly if it is personal and/or pertains to the children.
Conclusion
You will be able to comprehend what needs to be taken into consideration while designing a mobile app with APIs by looking over the aforementioned guidelines. However, we have included basic and essential tips, despite the fact that there are many tips that cannot be represented in a single post.
So, if you’re considering creating a mobile app, Stellar Digital is the place to go. Being a professional mobile app development company, we have a dedicated development team ready to help you with your project. To learn more about our mobile app development services, go to stellardigital.in.
