Best Practices for REST APIs in Drupal 11

Are you worried about how to make your Drupal REST APIs efficient and secure yet fulfil today's needs? As Drupal 11 looms on the horizon, both developers and Drupal website owners are looking forward to using its benefits to create robust APIs. 
However, with much power comes great responsibility, and figuring out the best methods for creating REST API can seem very difficult. Are you prepared to use its full capability? In this article, the Golems company delves into the best practices for REST APIs in Drupal 11.

General overview of REST APIs in Drupal 11

Traditional (monolithic) CMS has been replaced by a more flexible and decoupled approach(headless). In this new method, the front-end (what you see when you open the website) is separated from the back-end (content repository), but they cooperate mainly through APIs.
Drupal is a well-known open-source CMS that wholeheartedly embraces the headless revolution. As Drupal grows and changes, its ability to work with REST APIs is becoming more important for smooth, separate operations. This means that developers and website owners have to keep up with the latest to make the most of Drupal's REST APIs.

Why RESTful API in Drupal?

The short answer as to why REST APIs are essential parts of Drupal World:

• REST APIs provide a standard method for accessing and changing Drupal content, offering more flexibility for the front-end. No strict rules on what to use when constructing your front-end. You can use any technology you choose, such as React, Angular, Vue.js, or even mobile applications.
• REST APIs help deliver content to many places, such as websites, mobile apps, and smart devices, from a single back-end. This ensures a consistent user experience across all platforms.
• Headless architectures let you grow the front-end and back-end separately, which helps improve work performance and efficiently use resources.
• Separating your front-end from Drupal opens a whole new world for trying out new things and creating. You can add new technologies and services without changing your content repository.

Will Drupal 11 Impact REST API Development?

Although Drupal 11 has not yet been released, and the particular changes to its REST API have not yet been shared publicly, based on Drupal's history and usual patterns in web development, we can make some thoughtful guesses. Drupal 11 is planning to bring several features and enhancements that will make a big difference to how REST API development works:

Enhanced Core REST Module

Expect updates and changes that make performance better, security stronger, and easier to use. These improvements will make it more powerful for big business applications.

Useful  Modules and Enhancements

New modules that focus on enhancing API management, upgrading authentication methods, and improving data serialization are expected. Drupal usually embraces up-to-date web development techniques. Drupal 11 may have new updates to make the REST API match the newest standards and best practices.

Improved Developer Experience

Drupal has been making efforts to enhance the developer experience, and this direction will probably continue in Drupal 11. This might involve offering better tools, more efficient workflows, and easier-to-understand APIs for REST API creation.

JSON: API First

Drupal is moving more towards the "JSON: API First" method, where JSON: API becomes the default way to create REST APIs. In future Drupal 11 versions, this trend might get stronger with better features and enhancements for JSON: API.

*Just a heads up that these are only predictions, and the actual impact of Drupal 11 may be different

Top Advice for REST APIs in Drupal 11

As Drupal 11 is not yet ready, details about exact REST API changes and official best methods are not set in stone. But, we can make some forecasts by using established Drupal guidance and current trends:
Today, JSON:API as the Standard: Drupal is leaning more towards JSON:API being the default format for its REST APIs. It's recommended to use JSON:API, which includes features for data modeling, filtering, sorting, and pagination.

Safety as Priority: Security is the most important thing. You can anticipate more focus on strong authentication methods (for example, OAuth2 and JWT), comprehensive input validation, and rate limitation to safeguard against unauthorized entry and possible risks.

Performance Optimization: Caching (entity, render, HTTP), efficient database queries, and asynchronous processing will probably remain very important for maintaining the best possible API performance and responsiveness.

Maintainability and Documentation: To keep up with APIs for a long time, we need to use API versioning, full documentation (which involves endpoints, request/response structures, authentication, and error codes), and automatic testing.

Community Engagement: Stay involved in the Drupal community, checking official announcements and discussions about Drupal 11's REST API features, including new methods and suggestions.

Note: Below is the brief abstract of the best practices for REST APIs in Drupal. Let's get started!

Drupal REST APIs: 5 Best Practices

1. API Design Principles (RESTful)

Use nouns like /articles and/users and HTTP verbs such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE. Keeping the same consistent naming for the resources, parameters, and details. Also, it is suggested that your API should be stateless. Moreover, it's a good idea to put hyperlinks in API results, which can show clients what actions they can do and what they can find.

2. Include The API Version

It is important to add the API version into the URI, like [/v1/articles] or [/v2/articles]. The [accept] header is used to say which version of the API you want to see when you make a request. Add a new header [like X-API-Version] for keeping track of version numbers. 

3. Embracing JSON:API

JSON:API is a standard way of making and using REST APIs, which makes it easier to work with different clients and frameworks. It has features like filtering, sorting, pagination, sparse fieldsets, and handling relationships between resources. JSON:API is increasingly being embraced by the Drupal community, guaranteeing continued support and progress.

4. Authentication and Authorization

OAuth2 is the best way to protect your API because of its adaptability and wide backing. JWTs give a small and all-in-one method to send out authentication data, which makes them a strong instrument. API keys are a good choice for straightforward scenarios when you need to authenticate. It is very important to use Role-Based Access Control to properly handle who can do what in your API by managing user permissions and access levels.

5. Decoupled Architecture

When you work with Drupal's REST API, you can pick the front-end technology that matches your needs, like React, Vue, or Angular. By splitting the front-end and back-end, you make your application simpler to manage and change. A disconnected structure can help you increase your application's effectiveness at scaling by spreading tasks among several servers. Decoupling your application makes it simpler to upgrade to future Drupal versions or even switch to a different back-end technology.

Need Help? – Consult the Golems team!

You probably thought to find certain methods for using REST APIs with Drupal 11 in this writing. However, when we created this article, Drupal 11 had not yet been released. But, our development team tried to fill the blog with all we could about important and useful information and planning about Drupal 11 Impact on REST API Development.
Remember, Drupal is a continually growing system. Keeping up-to-date with the most recent changes, trying out new tools and methods, and being ready for adaptability will be very important for ongoing achievement in the changing field of API creation.