When working with APIs, it’s crucial to ensure data consistency. We see very often that network hiccups and retry policies cause the same request to be sent multiple times, potentially resulting in duplicate customer data or other inconsistencies. To address this challenge, we are thrilled to introduce idempotency tokens to the e-conomic APIs.
What is an Idempotency Token?
To put it simply, idempotency tokens are unique keys that help maintain the integrity of operations on the API’s. These tokens prevent accidental duplication of requests, ensuring that the same operation is not performed multiple times, even if the same request is sent repeatedly. This is achieved by temporarily storing the response, allowing us to return cached responses if the same request is sent again with the same token.
The Primary Goal: Solving Transient Network Issues
The primary goal of introducing idempotency tokens is to mitigate the impact of transient network issues. In today’s interconnected digital world, it’s not uncommon for requests to be retried due to network issues, interruptions, or delays. This often results in duplicated data or unintended operations being executed. With idempotency tokens, these problems become a thing of the past.
How to Use Idempotency Tokens
To take full advantage of idempotency tokens in our APIs, you will need to include an additional header in your API requests named “Idempotency-Key.” This header should contain a unique key that identifies the request. It’s important to note that you will be responsible for generating and keeping track of these keys.
Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use idempotency tokens:
- Include the “Idempotency-Key” Header: In your API requests, add the “Idempotency-Key” header and provide a unique key for each request. This key should be specific to the operation you’re performing, ensuring it remains unique for that request.
- Keep Track of Your Idempotency Keys: You are responsible for managing the idempotency keys for your requests. Make sure you keep a record of which keys correspond to which requests.
- Leverage Cached Responses: If a request with the same idempotency key is sent a second time and it has already been executed successfully, our API will return a cached response. You can identify these responses by the “X-ResultFromCache” header, which will be set to “true.”
By following these steps, you can make the most of idempotency tokens in our APIs and ensure that your applications remain robust and reliable, even in the face of transient network issues.
Incorporating idempotency tokens into your API requests is a simple yet effective way to enhance the resilience and performance of your applications while minimising the risk of data duplication on the customer side. As always, we are committed to providing you with the best tools to make your API development experience seamless and efficient.
If you have any questions or need further guidance on implementing idempotency tokens, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team at api@e-conomic.com.
Happy coding!