Building Successful APIs Overnight!

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Nik Wakelin @nikz

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API Tools

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D E V E LO PI N G SU CCE S S FU L AP I s OVERNIGHT!

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D E V E LO PI N G SU CCE S S FU L AP I s VIA INCREMENTAL AND SUSTAINED EFFORT OVER MANY MONTHS AND PERHAPS EVEN YEARS!!

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(It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen) D E V E LO PI N G SU CCE S S FU L AP I s

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1. Make 2. Market 3. Maintain

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MAKE

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do we even WANT an API?

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£THE AP I YO U NEVER BUILD WO N’T CO ST YOU ANY MONEY! ¥ €

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Who can we copy?

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ok, WE’RE IN!

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BEWARE THE IVORY TOWER

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X X MURDER THE UNICORNS MURDER

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YOUR API IS UNICORN NOT A

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YOUR API IS JUST LIKE ANY OT HER FEATURE

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Iterate, Iterate, Iterate

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Start SMALL then go BIG

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LISTEN and ADJUST

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time to TALK TECH

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Architecture REST SOAP RPC

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just use REST Simple & Natural Cacheable Plays nicely with HTTP

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Resource Anatomy https://rugbywc.com/api/teams/all-blacks Domain

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Resource Anatomy https://rugbywc.com/api/teams/all-blacks Namespace

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Resource Anatomy https://rugbywc.com/api/teams/all-blacks Resource

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Resource Anatomy https://rugbywc.com/api/teams/all-blacks Identiﬁer

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think nouns: /api/get_emails_for/bob /api/users/bob/emails.json

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use verbs: POST PATCH PUT GET DELETE HEAD, OPTIONS, …

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don’t forget about headers: Rate Limiting Caching (ETag, Cache-Control) Ranges (Pagination) API Version?

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Responses

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{ "type": "car", "name": "My Ferrari", "cylinders": 512, "options": { "seats": 4, "turbospeed": 360 }, "allowedpassengers": { "family": ["Alice", "Bob"], "friends": ["Charlie", "Diana"] } } My Ferrari 48 4 360 cdrom harddisk > JSON XML

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JSON API http://jsonapi.org { "data": { "type": "cars", "id": "48", "attributes": { "seats": 4, "turbospeed": 360 }, "relationships": { "allowedpassengers": { // ... } } } }

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{ post: { id: 211, title: 'Dog Bites Man', author: 'Nik Wakelin', _links: [ { rel: 'comments.new', href: 'posts/211/comments/new' } ] } HATEOAS

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errors!

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{ message: "Your caffeine level is too low, try a double espresso!", more_link: "https://developer.yourapi.com/errors/123" } HTTP 1.1 400 Bad Request

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authentication: OAuth (2.0) HTTP Basic Token (Header, Query)

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NEVER, EV ER INVENT YOUR OWN AUTH!

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I’ll quickly hack up a client for this custom auth… 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401 401

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NEVER, EV ER INVENT YOUR OWN AUTH!

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oauth 2.0: Good Library Support Plenty of Grant Types Can be hard to get your head around…

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http basic or API Key Very Simple Revocation? No Application Level Conﬁg

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skip it entirely! https://getkong.org

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Fake it ‘till you make it! Mock Proxies! http://mockbin.org https://github.com/basicallydan/interfake

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MARKET

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Developer Experience “DX”

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Who can we copy?

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Docs, Docs, AND MORE DOCS!

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docs essentials: “Getting Started” API Reference (Sample Code) Explorer (Try it out!) Registration

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Developer

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Recipes!

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https://stripe.com/docs/ “Stripe-style” 3-column

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Travis CI Top-Notch Narrative Docs docs.travis-ci.com

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Digital Ocean Community digitalocean.com/community

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Gelato! https://gelato.io

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Deﬁnition Languages swagger.io apiblueprint.org

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"/pet":{ "post":{ "summary":"Add a new pet to the store", "parameters":[ { "in":"body", "name":"body", "description":"Pet object that needs to be added to the store", "required":true, "schema":{ "$ref":"#/definitions/Pet" } } ], "responses":{ "405":{ "description":"Invalid input" } }, // ... swagger.io

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GET MOR E DEV S BY SPEAKING THEI R LANGUAGE

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Client Libraries - SDKs - Dev Kits + Sample Code!

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SDK creation Reference Implementation Unirest, HTTParty APIMatic.io Outsource

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Events!

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get your swag sorted Stickers (Stickermule) T-Shirts (make ‘em nice!) Coupons & Discounts

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hackathons make sure your devs are there! great way to help people fun integrations to tweet

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hiring! (sssh!)

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(“Mondometer” by @simonvc)

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hackathons short-term focus effort to organise

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MA I NTA I N

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Update. Communicate. …and Mature(ate)

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Update!

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Versioning https://rugbywc.com/api/v1/teams

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Versioning Do your best not to break anything …but don’t stand still.

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410 GONE

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analyse and improve Response Times Uptime (Status Page) Errors

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collect data https://apianalytics.com

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Communicate!

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@YourCoAPI

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slack.com

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gitter.im

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“Traditional”…

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Mature…

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Last Updated: 3 years ago

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DON’T FO RG ET TO SHOW OFF!

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Xero Add-On Directory Marketplace xero.com/add-ons

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Help your API developers make money.

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Help your API developers build businesses.

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INTEG RATIONS C AN BE A MAJOR COMPETI TIVE ADVANTAGE

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BE VERY CAREFUL OF ACQUISITIONS

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IN SHORT, FOR AN AMAZING API YOU NEED TO…

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X X MURDER THE UNICORNS MURDER

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Developer GREAT STORY TELL A

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KEEP IT UP!

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DON’T EXPECT IT TO HAPPEN OVERNIGHT

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Nik Wakelin @nikz

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Image Credits Switch from Marcin Wichary on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/mwichary/2356651346) Blocks from Holger Zscheyge on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/zscheyge/49012397) Unicorn from (https://thenounproject.com/search/?q=unicorn&i=9584) Sign from John McLinden on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/fogey03/16838534116/) (Bad Photoshop is all me) Unicorn cupcake from kirstin_b on flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kristinausk/4121781145/) Shape Sorter from SpAvAAi on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/spavaai/2536426227/ Disconnected Phone from mrdarkroom on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrdarkroom/5357276454 Leaning Tower from Kit on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/practicalowl/18648955463/) Crane from Nicolás Boullosa on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/faircompanies/20519433104/) Clown Fish & Blue Tang from Iooyaa on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/58196275@N04/8636837527/) Cookies from george.bremer on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/ghbremer/5276304808) ❤

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Image Credits Seedling from lev-shine on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinshine/9984357243/) Beer from Alan Levine on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/cogdog/21127813750) Airshow by Pavel N from the Noun Project Abandoned Six Flags from Darrell Miller on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/darrellrhodesmiller/6904703505) Tui Bird from Cat Burton on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/catburton/16023893948/) Mailboxes from Olga Caprotti on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/__olga__/2822660113/) Lock by Michael Martinho from the Noun Project Key by John Caserta from the Noun Project User by Wilson Joseph from the Noun Project Loudhailer from Lis Ferla on flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/lastyearsgirl_/3537374056/) Linux Kernel Baby from Harald Groven on flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kongharald/13242684424) Rainbow Tiles from Steve Snodgrass on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/stevensnodgrass/6807424348) Empty Classroom from KT King on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/xtrah/4853491803/) Cycle Hire from Kirk Siang on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/kirksiang/6180888330) ❤