James Higginbotham

API Architect

#GlueCon 2014 Notes: API First: Designing your Product from the Platform Out – Kirsten Hunter, 3Scale

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API First: Designing your Product from the Platform Out – Kirsten Hunter, 3Scale

  • APIs are often an afterthought for developers
  • You will always have another client
  • Taking an API first approach is the next level of MVC and allows for quick iterations
  • “I can’t do that. It’s Hard”
  • “We’ll never have a mobile client”
  • Examples
    • LOB – Cloud printing and mailing service. API as a product. Everything internal and external uses REST APIs
    • Instagram – They were mobile first, but became API-focused due to heavy need for code reuse between web and mobile platforms
    • 3Scale – API management company
    • Etsy – Made $1B last year. They moved to API-first over the course of a year after dealing with lagging APIs and duplicate code
  • Results of going API First
    • Encourages communication between backend and mobile developers
    • Testing around APIs will be great if everyone is using it (and depending on it)
  • How to get developers to move from an old version to a new version of an API? You can’t sunset an API version. So, create goodies and incentives to encourage them to move to the new version (capabilities, better examples)
  • Should you consider SDK first? No, developers should use the API and understand it (and HTTP/REST), not hide it in an SDK that makes it harder to debug
  • Take the time to go API First now, to save time in the future regarding bugs and duplication of code
  • Anytime you do something that developers don’t like, they go away. This is usually about inconsistency between APIs
  • When starting from use cases, you have less organic API growth and therefore lack of constant change vs. the “we need an API, make one for our mobile developers”
  • Backend engineers are most concerned about stability (it does what it is supposed to do), not about usability (what you want to do)
  • API design is definitely an “area of expertise” – not everyone has it. It’s important to get input from those who actually use it
  • Developers aren’t “lucky” to use your API. They are your partners – honor them by respecting their time by building a great developer experience

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