1) Local Storage and Caching

If you desperately want your user to never abandon your app on the grounds of slow app performance due to bad internet connectivity, be double checked that you are storing all the images, HTML, and CSS in the local storage. There are developers who observed a massive cut down in the size of the HTML data from approx 200 KB to 30 KB. Along with that, it would great if the entire unchangeable data like core navigation and categories will be placed within the app. By doing so, you will probably eliminate the trip through a selected mobile network, eradicating the need to pre-fetch the details like user data, paginated results, and queries which would generally be attached to the device without any extra requests.

2) Apply JSON

Back in the date, there was an option where the information was passed through URL encoded data. Well, that time is long gone. Whats working on the current date is JSON for making the data travel to the endpoints. From the user perspective, it would be easier for them to make the read and accumulate the request. For handling the JSON coded stuff, Rails are considered as faster and reasonable source. The ActionController feature of Rails will naturally uncover the data fetched with JSON giving the access through params hash.

3) Proper Versioning From Initiation

Mobile API can’t remain stagnant, it has to undergo alteration at any possible time in the future, so plan for the future and build it for the suitable version only. API serves as the bridge between the back-end and your mobile app. This makes essential for the API to be available in the varied range of versions. Your mobile app development would be left non-functional if versioning is not paid proper heed while making changes in the API.

4) Mandatory Pagination of Results

Pagination is the process through which a restriction is placed on the returning of the plenty of customers at a definite timing. Make sure, while you are building your mobile API, don’t forget to paginate the result. You can easily get started with manual pagination OFFSET and LIMIT statements in the data or queries or data collection. You cannot, I repeat you cannot ignore to display the pagination metadata at the time of return of each of the paginated result. Let me help you with how you can do it. You just need to use HTTP Link-Headers in the response, it's that simple.

5) Non-Public API Authentication

Web hackers are all across the globe, you can’t stop or catch them what you can do is keep your app protected from your end. If you are on the verge of developing a non-public API, get your head cleared to integrate a sleek authentication system. Authentication should be implemented in each of the HTTP clients, the process expects the consumers to feed proper username and password for getting access to the API.