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Introducing the ‘Reading API Documentation’ Guide

a brief overview of our newest guide

Published onNov 18, 2022
Introducing the ‘Reading API Documentation’ Guide

Hello! We’re excited to announce that we’ve added a new guide to our collection. It’s called How to Read API Documentation and it teaches exactly what you’d expect: how to read and understand the documentation for the various APIs that you might come across as a data professional.

The guide includes an introductory section that goes over how APIs and HTTP requests work. Have you always wanted to know how to read an API’s URL? Are you dying to learn the different parts of an HTTP request, or the different kinds of request methods? Will you take any excuse to browse the HTTP Status Cats? Then don’t skip the intro!


The bulk of the guide is a detailed walkthrough of an example API, Hustle. Hustle has beautiful API documentation that follows industry best practices. The walkthrough goes over authentication, pagination, and the API reference. It shows how, for each function made available by the API, you should be able to find:

  • The endpoint, or URL at which the function is available at

  • The HTTP method you should use to access the function

  • The parameters (inputs) you can use to narrow or filter the data returned

  • The responses (outputs) you can expect the API to send you in response

Each section has screenshots to help you follow which element is which.

We hope you enjoy this guide. If you have any questions or suggestions for how to improve it, please reach out! Please also know that you can request new guides on topics that interest you, submit your own guides, or request a training be held to go over one of the guides. The world is your oyster—you just have to ask. :)

Comments
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Jutta Klein:

Great guide, thank you. Flower delivery to Austria