# API Clients Design

**URL:** <https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/api-clients-design/41543>\
**Category:** Discussions\
**Tags:** http\_client\
**Created:** [August 8, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/api-clients-design/41543 "2021-08-08T19:25:39Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![yordisprieto](https://forum.elixirforum.com/user_avatar/forum.elixirforum.com/yordisprieto/32/20915_2.png) [@yordisprieto](https://forum.elixirforum.com/u/yordisprieto)\
**Post date:** [August 8, 2021, 7:25pm UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/api-clients-design/41543/1 "2021-08-08T19:25:39Z")

</div>

Hey there, I am working with a client for an OpenAPI spec, and I have a dilemma.

Imagine the following

```elixir
defmodule API.Account do
  @moduledoc """
  Implements /account endpoints.
  """

  alias StrawHat.Response
  alias API.{Client, Client.Request}

  @type t :: % __MODULE__ {
          email: String.t(),
          id: String.t(),
          is_international: boolean()
        }

  defstruct [:email, :id, :is_international]

  @doc """
  Retrieve account information.
  """
  @spec get_account(%Client{}) :: Response.t(% __MODULE__ {}, Client.error())
  def get_account(client) do
    client
    |> Request.new()
    |> Request.put_method(:get)
    |> Request.put_path("/account")
    |> Client.send()
    |> StrawHat.Response.and_then(&transform_response/1)
  end

  @doc false
  def new(data) do
    % __MODULE__ {
      email: data["email"],
      id: data["id"],
      is_international: data["isInternational"]
    }
  end

  defp transform_response(data) do
    data
    |> new()
    |> Response.ok()
  end
end

```

Here is my dilemma: Should I transform the incoming data into structs, or I shouldn’t bother with it?

I am talking about the following part

```elixir
    |> StrawHat.Response.and_then(&transform_response/1)

```

Should I keep that? Or should I just return the raw data?

I still don’t know what the right answer is here honestly.

From one side, it is a lot of work and I think doesn’t matter much, not sure.  
From the otherwise, it is nice, I get to have structs and normalize a bit the keys and such.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![princemaple](https://forum.elixirforum.com/user_avatar/forum.elixirforum.com/princemaple/32/421_2.png) [@princemaple](https://forum.elixirforum.com/u/princemaple)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 3:23am UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/api-clients-design/41543/2 "2021-08-09T03:23:59Z")

</div>

My personal preference is to return raw, so that you don’t have to keep up with the api as closely, and don’t have to distinguish between versions as strictly.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![stefanchrobot](https://forum.elixirforum.com/user_avatar/forum.elixirforum.com/stefanchrobot/32/7657_2.png) [@stefanchrobot](https://forum.elixirforum.com/u/stefanchrobot)\
**Post date:** [August 9, 2021, 7:23am UTC](https://forum.elixirforum.com/t/api-clients-design/41543/3 "2021-08-09T07:23:30Z")

</div>

If I’m writing an API client where I work with the data (as opposed to just passing it to somewhere else), I usually add the request and response structs. This makes the API more discoverable without the need to reach to the API documentation. But this is not a universal advice - there are scenarios where you don’t care about the response, so why waste the time on building a reach response.