GraphQL has driven much of the conversation around modern API web design, and for good reason — it’s powerful, extensible, and very useful for high data query applications. The ability to request data in a predetermined, knowable format, and the ability to collate endpoints into a single external point, has made GraphQL something that powers some pretty huge projects. Read more
We’ve been in the API game for a little while now, and we’ve seen our fair share of compelling developer communities being cultivated. On the flipside, we’ve also seen some epic fails. At our 2016 Platform Summit, Shayne Parmelee, developer experience lead at Shopify, talked about some of his own successes (and failures) during his time with the company. Read more
If you’ve been hiding under a rock for the past 18 months you may not know that the Swagger API specification, arguably the most popular specification format available to the API community, has been donated to the Linux Foundation to become the bedrock of the OpenAPI Specification. Read more
In our recent post on tips for starting a public API journey we touched briefly on the idea of creating a style guide that helps API providers produce well-constructed and consistent APIs as part of their public API offering. The creation of an API style guide is, however relevant for API providers regardless of whether they are providing APIs externally or internally: It provides the context for their development efforts whether it be outsourced or created internally and is an important tool for achieving some level of governance across the organization. Read more
APIs are necessarily a communal endeavor — the community fostered between the users, the providers, and those who depend on the API for the functions of their own services drives the development environment of the API space.
Accordingly, developer outreach is absolutely essential for cultivating an API’s network of users and agents. Read more
