Day: October 20, 2018

#ICYDK: When developing a mobile or cloud app, creating automated business processes, or making an app that is front and backend divided, we will probably write a REST API. In a few words, a REST API is a set of functions with which developers can perform requests and receive responses via HTTP protocol such as GET and POST. Digging deeper, developers learn about HTTP methods purposes and message formats. They focus on how to provide and process data, forgetting, that their API will be actually used by other developers and their application users. In this article, I will describe what usually tends to be overlooked by people who develop an API but is important for those who will use it.

#1 Error Reporting

Error responses are as important as successful ones. They affect applications that use our API — on the basis of errors developers change program behaviors and provide information to users. Due to the above, error responses should be consistent and thought out. Being aware of common mistakes will improve their usability: https://goo.gl/tXseHw

#ICYMI: I have numerous tools that help me create OpenAPIs from the APIs I stumble across each day. Ideally I’m crawling, scraping, harvesting, and auto-generating OpenAPIs, but inevitably the process gets a little manual. To help reduce friction in these manual processes, I try to have a variety of services, tools, and scripts I can use to make my life easier, when it comes to create a machine-readable definition of an API I am using — in this scenario it is the xignite CloudAlerts API.

One way I’ll create an OpenAPI from a simple GET API request, providing me with a machine-readable definition of the surface area of that API, is using Postman. When you have the URL copied onto your clipboard, open up your Postman, and paste the URL with all the query parameters present. https://goo.gl/WhRsDR

#ICYDK: The U.S. Senate has confirmed Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court after weeks of controversy. Here’s an overview of how he has ruled on workplace issues. https://goo.gl/EZry1e