Payload Optimization

A response can contain far more information than the screen using it needs. A bookstore's search screen, for example, might display only a title, price, and cover thumbnail for each result, while its API also returns full descriptions, author biographies, reviews, and warehouse records. Compression reduces the download, but the server still assembles unused data and the phone still decompresses and parses it.

Payload optimization reduces the cost of producing, transferring, and consuming request and response bodies while preserving their meaning.

This chapter covers response shaping, compression, serialization, binary content, and measurement. The examples use a fictional bookstore API over HTTPS at api.bookstore.example; limits and performance figures are illustrative application choices.