API Design at Eventbrite

A short talk given as part of the Eventbrite "Advanced Django" workshop at Pycon 2014

1. API Design at Andrew Godwin @andrewgodwin
2. The Problem
3. Two existing APIs: APIv1 at least 6 years old APIv2 never finished and now too specialised
4. Outdated: No provision for new features Some interfaces locked down to old ideas (e.g. payment)
5. Bad patterns: Same domain as main site /xml/?method=access_code_new Both XML and JSON as return formats, transformed from each other.
6. The Task Build a new API for the modern era
7. SOA Match it as closely as possible
8. Event service Venue service Order service Payment service SOA Client
9. Event service Venue service Order service Payment service SOA Client APIv3 API Client
10. Future-proof Allow for more features easily
11. Maintainable Make sure it's easier to extend than start again
12. The Basis
13. The Basis Django REST Framework
14. The Basis Django REST Framework Custom SOA/API coupling
15. The Basis Django REST Framework Custom SOA/API coupling Piecemeal refactors of current code
16. The Basis Django REST Framework Custom SOA/API coupling Piecemeal refactors of current code APIv1 as initial target to start deprecation
17. Design Principles
18. JSON only Mapping XML ←→ JSON rarely works well
19. REST (ish) Sensible paths, sensible verbs
20. /events/ /events/39992/ /events/39992/orders/ /events/39992/publish/ /users/me/owned_events/ POST: New event GET: Event details POST: Update event GET: List of orders /events/39992/orders/12392/ GET: Order details POST: Publish event GET: List of your events DELETE: Delete event
21. Every response is {} Leaves room for new features/pagination
22. Pagination everywhere And standardised, so there's no surprises
23. Introspectable parameters For our documentation and API explorer
26. Always more to do Documentation, consistency, and new features
27. Try it today! http://developer.eventbrite.com
28. Thanks. @andrewgodwin andrewgodwin@eventbrite.com