APIs have change to bring your application new features and include improvements. To insulate against change, while still allowing improvements, the API is versioned.
API versions are implemented using HTTP's content negotiation mechanism. Your application requests a
known version of a resource using an HTTP Accept
header:
GET /documents?limit=125 HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/vnd.mendeley-document.1+json
Authorization: Bearer MSwxNDA5N…T1I5dnhPa0U
The value for the Accept
header is an Internet media type (MIME type). Each response
confirms the version, and type, of resource returned using an HTTP Content-Type
header:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/vnd.mendeley-document.1+json
Content-Length: 882
[content not listed]
All Mendeley API resource versions are created from a format:
application/vnd.mendeley-<RESOURCE_TYPE>.<VERSION>+json
You are very strongly encouraged to include version information in your application's requests. Requesting a specific version of a resource is the only way to ensure predictable and stable API responses. API requests for a specific version of the resource:
If a version is not included in the request, the version returned in the response is undocumented – another reason to request a specific version.