Towards Evolvable APIs through Ontological Analysis
Nikolas Jíša, Robert Pergl · Annals of Computer Science and Information Systems · 2024
In recent times, the growth of technology toward decentralized solutions and microservice architecture has made Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) crucial for connecting different parts of business software systems.Although the technologies for developing and using APIs are quite stable, the fast-changing business world demands that APIs be easy to maintain and adapt.Currently, changes in APIs made by API providers often imply required updates on the side of API consumers, which can be costly and prone to mistakes.This paper analyzes the types of changes in APIs and uses this analysis to build a detailed model that shows the relationships between API consumers and API providers.This model helps visualize these relationships and can serve as a stepping stone for further automation.As a means of possible evolvable realization, we discuss the Normalized System Theory and implementation.