Version a REST web service API

Changes to a web service API can impact existing clients. For example, a change in the format of the response data or type (an integer to a float) could result in an error for clients. To ensure that clients are not disrupted, manage the change by versioning your web service operations.

You version an operation if changes to an existing function, such as the request and/or response data, would break existing use of the operation. You need to create a new version of the function to apply the changes.

The REST specifications do not provide specific versioning guidelines; however, this section describes commonly used approaches.

You can either implement versioning using advanced REST API versioning (recommended) or you can hand-code versioning.