The Path of Good API - Speaker Deck

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THE PATH OF GOOD API Zdenek “Z” Nemec 10 Things I Learned about APIs in 7 Years goodapi.co

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I help businesses to build their APIs Zdenek “Z” Nemec @zdne zdne1 goodapi.co

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https://goodapi.co INDEPENDENT API CONSULTING

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THE PATH OF GOOD API No.10 No.1 No.2 No.3 No.4 No.5 No.6 No.7 No.8 No.9 goodapi.co Predom inant API Styles Digital Transform ation M anagem ent W ho Serves Custom ers Product Ow ner Challenges Architecture Tools are the lim its Data M odel Future

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WORLD RUNS ON SOAP, EDI OR FTP goodapi.co No.1

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– Pingdom Blog, October 2010 “REST in Peace SOAP” goodapi.co

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IN REALITY, MOST OF THE SERVICES YOU HAVE USED TO GET TO THIS CONFERENCE ARE UTILIZING SOME OTHER TYPES OF APIS BUT REST goodapi.co

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This is the same rhetorics from REST evangelists towards SOAP as we see today from GraphQL towards REST goodapi.co

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THERE WERE TWO WAVES OF API DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION goodapi.co No.2 Two Groups of Customers

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1. LARGE ORGANIZATIONS EMBRACING IT 2. UBIQUITOUS INTERNET AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT goodapi.co

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FIRST WAVE goodapi.co Fulﬁlled by SOAP, EDI, FTP, ESB, etc.

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SECOND WAVE goodapi.co

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TWO WAVES goodapi.co Two Groups of Customers CUSTOMER SPECIFIC APIS GENERIC APIS VS. many mid- or small size customers few large established customers

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THE NEW (SECOND WAVE) TYPE OF CUSTOMERS IS IGNORED OR UNDERSERVED BY INCUMBENTS goodapi.co

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YOU CAN CONVINCE MANAGEMENT ABOUT THE IMPORTANCE OF APIS No.3 goodapi.co

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IF YOU DON’T DO IT, SOMEBODY ELSE WILL SERVE YOUR CUSTOMERS No.4 goodapi.co

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Incumbent Existing Customer Existing Customer Existing Customer goodapi.co FIRST WAVE

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Incumbent Existing Customer Existing Customer Existing Customer 3rd party New Type of Customer ignored at the start Second Wave of Customers goodapi.co SECOND WAVE

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Incumbent Existing Customer Existing Customer Existing Customer 3rd party New Type of Customer New Type of Customer New Type of Customer goodapi.co SECOND WAVE

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Incumbent Existing Customer Existing Customer Existing Customer 3rd party New Type of Customer New Type of Customer New Type of Customer goodapi.co SECOND WAVE TAKING OVER FIRST WAVE CUSTOMERS

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Existing Customer Existing Customer Existing Customer 3rd party New Type of Customer New Type of Customer New Type of Customer goodapi.co Incumbent Incumbent Incumbent UNIFORM INTERFACE Uniform Interface

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Website “Providers” Client Client Client Client Client Client goodapi.co ARE YOUR CUSTOMERS YOURS?

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THE WAY OUT goodapi.co

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API PRODUCT OWNER IS KEY TO SUCCESS No.5 goodapi.co

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YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE EXPENSIVE API PROGRAM, JUST GET SOMEBODY WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR APIS AND WILL BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THEM goodapi.co

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API-FIRST IS STILL A MAJOR CHANGE FOR MANY COMPANIES goodapi.co

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SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO BOIL THE OCEAN No.6 goodapi.co

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INCUMBENTS HEAVILY INVESTED IN FIRST WAVE goodapi.co SOAP, EDI, FTP, ESB, “private clouds” but also processes and trained experts.

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CUSTOMERS FROM THE FIRST WAVE OFTEN DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE SECOND WAVE goodapi.co

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HOT POTATOES • API First, product owner present • Generation of API documentation from code • Building your own platform (cloud vs. own infrastructure) • Abuse of HTTP because ﬁrst-wave customers “don’t get it” • Hypermedia • Versioning • Applying existing architecture and styles goodapi.co

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OFTEN, A WRONG API STYLE IS USED The Right Architectural Style No.7 goodapi.co

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PICK THE RIGHT ARCHITECTURAL STYLE Don’t jump on REST or GraphQL just because its #trending sometimes, sending a ﬁle is the right way to go goodapi.co

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SIMPLICITY, TRENDS AND SPEED TODAY WINS OVER LONGEVITY AND SPEED TOMORROW goodapi.co

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PREVENT UNINFORMED DECISIONS goodapi.co

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TOOLS ARE OUR LIMITS No.8 goodapi.co

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TOOLS ARE OUR LIMITS • Existing investments (tools, infrastructure & processes) • Bloated API Management Tools • Limiting API description formats • Data modeling from the past • Tooling for structured data goodapi.co

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CANONICAL DATA MODEL DOESN’T WORK No.9 goodapi.co

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CANONICAL DATA MODEL IS ANTI PATTERN IN MICROSERVICES AND FAAS WORLD goodapi.co Use concern separation, bounded context, DDD techniques

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UNIFORM INTERFACE IS THE FUTURE No.10 goodapi.co

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goodapi.co ENGINEERING PRINCIPLE OF GENERALITY 1957 2017

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A CONSISTENT, PREDICTABLE WAY TO QUERY DATA AND EXERCISE ACTIONS REGARDLESS OF THE APPLICATION DOMAIN AND PROVIDER goodapi.co

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WHY IS UI THE FUTURE? • Simpliﬁes architecture • Improves visibility of interactions • Decouple components, enables evolution • Improves interoperability, reduces cost of integration • Reduces costs and time to market • Enables autonomous service discovery • ENABLES FOR GENERAL AI • Automatic clients • Autonomous clients goodapi.co

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UNIVERSE OF CAPABILITIES goodapi.co

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This is what Amazon (Alexa skills), Google (Home skills) & VIV are doing... DATABASE OF KNOWLEDGE AND SERVICES WITH UNIFORM INTERFACE goodapi.co

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PATH TO UI • Platforms like StdLib / Algorithmia • Architectural Styles (REST, GraphQL) • Structured Data (JSON-LD) • AI Databases (Grakn.ai) • Or we leave it up to Amazon and Google to become the 3rd party, intermediaries, to the universe. goodapi.co

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Do you want to provide a uniform interface or leave it to third-party vendors to do it? goodapi.co BUILDING YOUR NEXT API Client Client Client Client Client Provider Provider Client Client Structured Data & Architecural Style Client Client Client Provider Provider Provider - OR -

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GOOD API Independent API Consulting https://goodapi.co