A Public API

I spoke at the Full Stack Engineering Meetup about Gilt's Public API, which I worked on in 2011 and 2012.

Transcript

1. A PUBLIC API Casey Kolderup Gilt Tech, Dec 2013
2. HI HELLO • Senior Software Engineer at Gilt • 2011-2012: Public API • 2012-Present: Gilt City
3. HI HELLO PS1="\[\033[38;5;119m \]\W\[\033[01;30m\]\$ (__git_ps1 \" (%s)\”): \[\033[00;0m\]”
4. HI HELLO Things I’m into: vim, Rdio, Twitter
5. HI HELLO Ask me about: Twitter bots, why the lucky stiff
6. HI HELLO Tell me about: zsh, MOBAs
7. Memories
8. Feb 2012: 1.0 Launch!
10. June 2012: Fashion Hack Day
12. Feb 2013: Developer Portal 2.0
14. Public API • nearly 1k registered, including Shopstyle and Yipit • serving ~100k requests per hour • 4% affiliate commission program available
15. The API Stack Three layers • Web • Syndication • Commons
16. The API Stack Three layers • Web • Syndication • Commons
17. • Client library JAR • Written in Scala with a Java-compatible API • Very light caching in these clients Commons
18. The Commons repository should contain the highest examples of quality code at Gilt. This means that: Commons —Mike Bryzek, ~/src/commons-core/README.md
19. Naming is 100% consistent Commons —Mike Bryzek, ~/src/commons-core/README.md
20. Methods are concise and each function does at most 1 thing Commons —Mike Bryzek, ~/src/commons-core/README.md
21. There are unit tests for everything Commons —Mike Bryzek, ~/src/commons-core/README.md
22. You have reviewed each line of code and can honestly say that at the moment you have no idea how to improve the clarity of the code Commons —Mike Bryzek, ~/src/commons-core/README.md
23. • no more Map<String, Object> • instead: User, Product, Sale, Size, Country • “Commons-style clients” now expected Commons
24. The API Stack Three layers • Web • Syndication • Commons
25. svc-syndication
26. • Pure Scala service • If Commons were a database, this would be a view • Moderate caching • 75% marshaling svc-syndication
27. The API Stack Three layers • Web (and Cache… and Auth…) • Syndication • Commons
28. • Apigee Gateway (VM running a Java app) • Apigee Key Manager (Ruby on Rails) • Gilt Developer Portal (Play Framework) Web
29. When To Go For It
31. Benefits and Effects of Having an API
32. Recruiting & Evangelism
33. • Attend hackathons around the community • Engage with outside developers • Use as an optional way to screen incoming candidates • Work with bloggers & partners Recruiting & Evangelism
34. Reflection
35. • What's overly complex/hard to document? • What's dangerous to expose? • What’s hard to get to? Reflection
36. Using Your Own Public API
37. …we basically don’t right now. Using Your Own Public API
38. • Currently missing features we would want on the frontend like checkout, search, etc • In some ways, because of Commons, it’d just be another layer of indirection Using Your Own API
39. • 1.0 of our Public API matured quickly, so we feel confident about the quality & documentation • It has reliable automated testing & monitoring in place across the full stack—just like any internal app Using Your Own API
40. So?
41. Invest in what makes sense
42. See what else falls out
43. dev.gilt.com tech.gilt.com
44. hmu, bbs ! ckolderup@gilt.com ! @ckolderup