API Design at Eventbrite

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

Transcript

1. API Design at
   Andrew Godwin
   @andrewgodwin
   

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2. The Problem
   

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3. Two existing APIs:
   APIv1 at least 6 years old
   APIv2 never finished and now
   too specialised
   

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4. Outdated:
   No provision for new features
   Some interfaces locked down to
   old ideas (e.g. payment)
   

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5. Bad patterns:
   Same domain as main site
   /xml/?method=access_code_new
   Both XML and JSON as return
   formats, transformed from each
   other.
   

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6. The Task
   Build a new API for the modern era
   

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7. SOA
   Match it as closely as possible
   

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8. Event service
   Venue service
   Order service
   Payment service
   SOA Client
   

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9. Event service
   Venue service
   Order service
   Payment service
   SOA Client
   APIv3 API Client
   

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10. Future-proof
    Allow for more features easily
    

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11. Maintainable
    Make sure it's easier to extend than start again
    

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12. The Basis
    

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13. The Basis
    Django REST Framework
    

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14. The Basis
    Django REST Framework
    Custom SOA/API coupling
    

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15. The Basis
    Django REST Framework
    Custom SOA/API coupling
    Piecemeal refactors of current code
    

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16. The Basis
    Django REST Framework
    Custom SOA/API coupling
    Piecemeal refactors of current code
    APIv1 as initial target to start deprecation
    

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17. Design Principles
    

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18. JSON only
    Mapping XML ←→ JSON rarely works well
    

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19. REST (ish)
    Sensible paths, sensible verbs
    

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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
    

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21. Every response is {}
    Leaves room for new features/pagination
    

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22. Pagination everywhere
    And standardised, so there's no surprises
    

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23. Introspectable parameters
    For our documentation and API explorer
    

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26. Always more to do
    Documentation, consistency, and new features
    

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27. Try it today!
    http://developer.eventbrite.com
    

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28. Thanks.
    @andrewgodwin
    andrewgodwin@eventbrite.com
    

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