Mastering RESTful Web Services with Java: Practical guide for building secure and scalable production-ready REST APIs

Learn RESTful API design with Java, covering everything from fundamental design principles to advanced techniques for authentication, versioning, error handling, security, testing, performance, and more

Key Features

• Discover essential architectural principles for building robust and adaptable REST APIs
• Gain practical insights into tuning performance and securing endpoints through real-world case studies
• Apply API design concepts to build fully functional services using popular frameworks like Spring Boot
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

REST powers the modern web, yet developers grapple with architectural missteps that lead to poorly designed REST endpoints, inadequate error handling, security vulnerabilities, and maintenance headaches. Written by five software engineering and Java experts, Mastering RESTful Web Services with Java helps you overcome these pitfalls with a deep, practical understanding of REST architecture, HTTP protocols, and modern API design principles.

This hands-on guide introduces foundational concepts based on Roy Fielding’s principles and the Richardson Maturity Model and shows you how to apply them in your API development projects. You’ll build a Product API from scratch, progressively enhancing it with documentation, versioning, and security features, and then advance to creating an Order Management API that interacts with the Product API, while implementing advanced testing and performance optimization techniques. Each chapter delivers step-by-step explanations and practical examples, ensuring you develop production-ready skills that translate directly to your daily work.

By the end of the book, you’ll be ready to deliver production-grade RESTful services and become the API expert your team turns to for critical application development projects.

What you will learn

• Design clean, modular REST APIs that support real-world business workflows
• Implement secure authentication and authorization flows using modern identity standards
• Deploy your application to the cloud with strategies that ensure reliability, elasticity, and cost-efficiency
• Use the OpenAPI specification to define precise contracts and promote consumer-driven API development
• Leverage Java records and virtual threads to write concise, scalable, and concurrent service logic
• Apply structured testing techniques to validate behavior, resilience, and security across your API layers

Who this book is for

This book is for mid-to-senior level backend Java developers looking to improve the quality and performance of their REST APIs. Whether you’re optimizing existing APIs or launching a greenfield project, the ideas shared here will enhance your development practice. Additionally, tech leads and architects looking to sharpen their API design skills and master advanced Java API development techniques will find this book useful.

Table of Contents

1. Understanding RESTful Core Concepts
2. Exposing a RESTful API with Spring
3. Documenting Your API Effectively
4. Generating Code from OpenAPI
5. Managing API Evolution
6. Advanced API Concepts and Implementations
7. Securing Your RESTful APIs
8. Testing Strategies for Robust APIs
9. Monitoring and Observability
10. Scaling and Performance Optimization Techniques
11. Alternative Java Frameworks to Build RESTful APIs
12. Deploying APIs

Marián Varga has dedicated his career to the integration and API aspects of software solutions across diverse industries. His extensive experience has given him a front-row seat to the evolution of various API styles, their implementation possibilities, and the challenges they present. Passionate about connecting systems through APIs and integration solutions, Marián also bridges the gap between business and technical people, enhancing the efficiency and enjoyment of software development. Marián creates content for and builds a community of people interested in integration.

Pedro Andrade has over 14 years of hands-on experience as a software engineer, specializing in ERP systems for small to medium-sized companies across diverse industries. Over the past six years, he has transitioned to larger projects in various countries for different domains, showcasing his adaptability and expertise in Java technologies as Spring framework for web applications. As the co-founder of BarreirasJUG, a Java user group in Brazil, Andrade has actively contributed to the Java community, fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Silvio de Morais is a software architect from Porto Alegre, Brazil, with over 30 years of experience in IT and software development. He has led projects for Fortune 500 companies, focusing on digital transformation, cloud computing, and software architecture. Silvio holds degrees from PUC Brazil and Harvard University and has conducted research at the University of Tokyo. He actively contributes to tech forums, conferences, and Java User Groups, promoting continuous improvement. He now lives in Orlando, FL, with his wife.

Thiago Bomfim has many years of experience in developing Java web applications. He has worked in start-ups and large companies, where he has had the opportunity to create REST APIs for all types of clients, including desktop, web, backend, and mobile. His career is fuelled by a deep commitment to engineering excellence, following the best practices of RESTful APIs and focusing on high performance and backward compatibility. Beyond coding, Thiago is passionate about sharing knowledge. He writes technical articles on his blog, speaks at events, mentors developers, and co-hosts the Out of The Box Developer podcast.

Igor Avancini Fraga possesses over 12 years of experience in software engineering and is a full member of the Java Community Process (JCP) by Oracle. He has diligently worked on developing applications, services, and features using Java, C#, and X++ for various companies in Brazil and the United States, thereby delivering numerous successful projects throughout his career, encompassing both backend and frontend domains. In recent years, his focus has predominantly been on backend development tailored for the cloud, with a particular emphasis on the development of RESTful APIs and their seamless integration with other services, third-party platforms, and, more recently, AI technologies.