Web Services Dos and Don’ts: Making Your API Secure and Efficient

With the rapid development of the digital world, web services and APIs (Application Programming Interface) have become the backbone of modern applications and services. APIs enable businesses to accelerate innovation, simplify integration processes, and create new business opportunities. However, creating an effective API is not limited to just providing functionality; It is also necessary to provide a structure that is safe, efficient and easy for developers to use.

API Gateway

API Gateway is a server service that facilitates and manages communication between software applications. This service receives incoming requests, directs them to relevant services, performs security checks, provides authorization, and manages traffic. By managing multiple APIs at a single point, API Gateway facilitates clients’ access to different services and routes all requests through a single API Gateway. Moreover, API Gateway streamlines system management and maintenance by providing centralized security, monitoring, and analysis functions. However, since Gateway processes all incoming and outgoing requests centrally, any issues with Gateway can potentially impact the entire system. Dealing with installation, configuration, and management processes may complicate system administration and increase workload. Additionally, API Gateway performance issues may arise in high-traffic applications. Nonetheless, API Gateway offers advantages such as enabling developers to monitor and manage APIs, ensuring secure management, and enhancing performance by evenly distributing incoming requests among microservices. Monitoring and analyzing incoming requests allow for insights into API performance, traffic intensity, and errors.

Rate Limiting ve Throttling

Rate Limiting: Rate Limiting is a method used to limit the number of requests an API can receive within a specific time period. It is used especially in times of heavy traffic to protect server resources and distribute requests fairly. API providers typically determine the maximum number of requests that can be made per user or IP address within a certain time frame. If this limit is exceeded, API requests are either rejected or responded with a specific error code. Rate Limiting is important for balancing the load on servers and maintaining service quality.

Throttling: Throttling is a strategy used to protect servers by slowing down or limiting the usage of a specific service during periods of excessive load. Throttling not only limits the number of requests that can be made within a certain time frame but also controls the request rate within that time frame. This prevents the server from crashing or degrading service quality during times of heavy load. Throttling is typically adjustable dynamically and can be automatically applied based on specific traffic conditions. This improves user experience by maintaining service stability and optimizing server performance.

CORS Management

CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) is one of the security policies of web browsers, governing the interaction between web applications from different origins. In modern web applications where APIs are widely used, there is often a need to access different origins. CORS provides a mechanism to manage such access securely. API providers can integrate CORS policies into their APIs, granting or denying access permissions to specific origins. This helps prevent requests from malicious websites and ensures data security.

CI/CD Processes

Continuous Integration (CI): Continuous Integration (CI) is the first step in the software development process, ensuring that code written by different developers is regularly brought together and tested. This process involves the continuous integration of changes in software projects into a central repository. The primary goal of CI is to continuously merge code changes in software projects to ensure compatibility and functionality. This prevents conflicts between different developers’ codes and facilitates early error detection. In the CI process, any change in the software project is automatically compiled, integrated, and tested. This process is often automated using a CI/CD tool. When developers commit their code to the central repository, the CI tool retrieves, compiles, tests, and checks for any errors. Automated tests are crucial in the CI process, and various tests can be applied during this phase.

Continuous Delivery/Continuous Deployment (CD): Continuous Delivery (CD) and Continuous Deployment (CD) are subsequent stages after CI and facilitate the automatic compilation, testing, and release of software. The primary goal of CD is to enable fast, reliable, and repeatable delivery of software to customers. In the continuous delivery process, software is delivered to a staging server and manually tested. In continuous deployment, however, software is directly deployed to the production environment and made available to customers. The CD process is often considered an extension of the CI process and is automated. A CI/CD tool automates steps such as compiling, testing, and deploying software. CI and CD are critical stages in the software development process, and when used together, they enhance the quality of software projects, reduce errors, and enable faster and more reliable service delivery to customers.