API's and You

I recently decided to share the knowledge I have gained over the past year while trying to build an API for the startup I work for.

If you're interested in seeing the next part of the talk, and happen to live in Austin, Texas you should come to the next Laravel Meetup on July 8th. Link here: http://www.meetup.com/Laravel-Austin/

Links within the presentation:
* http://twitter.com/HSkrasek
* https://github.com/fzaninotto/Faker
* http://info.apigee.com/Portals/62317/docs/web%20api.pdf
* https://leanpub.com/build-apis-you-wont-hate

Transcript

1. APIs and You Hunter Skrasek - @HSkrasek
2. Who's this guy?
3. Born and Raised Dallas/Fort Worth area
4. Came for school, stayed for work Austin is pretty cool though!
5. So.. Whats an API?
6. • API aka Application Programming Interface • Set of HTTP Requests in the "Web" world • Made with XML (yuck), or JSON (yay) • Synonymous with a Web Service • Remember SOAP and SOA? No? Good • Moving towards REST

7. REST • Less RESTafarian, more "pragmatic REST" • Think from the "outside in"
8. Let's get started!
9. Database Seeding Yay
10. • Let's assume you've already made the database • Or we will be here forever • Dummy data for acceptance tests • DO NOT JUST COPY PRODUCTION DATA!!!!
11. But how do I make these? • Use Faker! • Better at BS than college students • https://github.com/fzaninotto/Faker • Break it down into logical groups • Doesn't have to be 1 to 1
12. Seeder Example
13. Endpoint Planning • What does your API need? • Talk to the customers! (Or business) • List all the "Actions" or possible endpoints
14. Users Posts Projects Create Read Update Delete List Image Posts Projects Create Read Update Delete List (category, author) Comments Create Read Update Delete List (category, author) Comments
15. Endpoint Theory • GET Resources • GET /resources - List all resources • GET /resources/X - Get resource X • GET /resources/X,Y,Z - Get resources X, Y, X • GET /resources/X/subresources/Y - Get sub resource Y of resource X
16. Speaking of SubResources • SubResources vs. Embedded • Either is fine, both is better • We will stick with subresources for now
17. –Somebody Somewhere “Auto Increment ID is bad.”
18. Endpoint Theory • DELETE Resources • DELETE /resources - Delete all the things! (Not really) • DELETE /resources/X - Delete resource X • DELETE /resources/X,Y,Z - Delete resources X, Y, X • DELETE /resources/X/subresources/Y - Get sub resource Y of resource X
19. POST vs. PUT • Long story short.. who cares! • Make sure it is consistent. • “Generally speaking, PUT is used if you know the entire URL before hand and the action is idempotent. Idempotent is a fancy word for ‘can do it over and over again without causing different results’.”
20. Endpoint Theory • Plural vs. Singular • Consistency is key • No /users and /user/1 • Example: opportunity becomes opportunities
21. Questions?
22. Sources • Apigee’s Web API Design
23. Sources • Phil Sturgeons Build API’s You Wont Hate