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December 4, 2018 13:50
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REST API journey for updating an address on an insurance quote
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| ``` | |
| Insurance quote people microservice. | |
| rel method href | |
| GET / | |
| { // Root links } | |
| people:quotes GET /quotes | |
| { // List of quotes each with links } | |
| people:view-quote GET /quotes/123?quoteStatus=Accepted | |
| { // Single quote stub with links } | |
| people:furtherdetails GET /quotes/123/people/client/furtherdetails | |
| { // More detail on the client with links } | |
| people:change-address GET /quotes/123/people/client/furtherdetails/addresses/home/editor?postcode=se11se | |
| { // List of addresses in SE11SE each with links } | |
| people:pick-address GET /quotes/123/people/client/furtherdetails/addresses/home/editor?postcode=se11se&pick=0 | |
| { // Single address with link to save to quote } | |
| people:set-as-new-address PUT { ... } /quotes/123/people/client/furtherdetails/addresses/home | |
| { // Echoes the updated home address with links } | |
| return "home" ? Returning home requires quoteStatus | |
| ``` |
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This illustrates just how much extra work is required for a microservice holding the people associated with an insurance quote using REST-over-HTTP as the style of API for the microservice as opposed to CRUD-over-HTTP or even SOAP or Remoting.
Every action and transition must be journeyed and built just like a traditional website. The only difference, in this API at least, is the use of JSON instead of HTML.
Designing and testing is as much work as for a website, each link and the rules around its appearance, driving and automating journeys is a lot of work.
Specifying (esp. using any of the common API spec formats) everything even a fairly small API can do doesn't scale, it becomes apparent that the spec is either only a gist for the developer else it cannot cover all the various states and representations, it would be like exhaustively specifying every web page for a traditional website.