Design and Implementation of a Private RESTful API to Leverage the Power of an eCommerce Platform

An Application Programming Interface (API) facilitates direct access to the functionality provided by the web site and therefore leverages third-party efforts to add value to existing services. Over the past few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of APIs being made available to customers. In the domain of eCommerce, more and more companies are starting to release them to leverage the power of their platforms. Currently, the development of an API is rather a subdued activity with no established or widely accepted guidelines. This paper reports our experience in designing and implementing a RESTful private API to leverage the power of the NitroSell eCommerce platform. We use Unified Modeling Language (UML) class diagrams to model the relationship between the resources of the API. As security is a hot topic in the field of eCommerce, we also describe how we dealt with the authentication process.