Essential REST API Notes for 2015/04/27 - #BerlinAPIs Edition

At the end of last week numerous API fans, theorists, and businesses gathered in Berlin for the combined APIDays and API Strategy event. What follows is a tidy recap of some of the best bits shared during the conference.

PAYPAL RELEASES "API STYLE GUIDE"

As mentioned on Twitter by Paypal's Head of API Design, Jason Harmon, Paypal has published its API Style Guide on Github. The publicly available resource covers many conventions and industry best practices used by the large e-commerace enabler. For those beginning their own program (or reviewing an existing one), it represents a fantastic resource for common API solutions.

INTRODUCING "PREDICTIVE APIS"

You may have heard of "realtime APIs" and "hypermedia APIs". But at the Berlin event Louis Dorard shared a slide deck on "Predictive APIs". The idea is to harness the power of machine learning and expose their predictive models via API. Given how these algorithms have traditionally been the source of competitive advantage, It will be interested in seeing what degree businesses are willing to entrust them to a 3rd party.

MICROSERVICES HOW-TO

People are beginning to take the microservice promise and share their tales of implementation. David Simons also posted his Berlin slide deck, "Decoupling APIs through Microservices". In procedural fashion, he shares what problems microservices solve, explains what a microservice is, and shows how to get underway.

WRAPPING UP

Early this week I'll be in McLean, VA at the gracious request of the Capital One API Summit organizers. While that event is limited to Capital One employees, don't despair! I'll be speaking again on API platform development May 15th at the Nordic APIs Seattle stop. If you're going to be there be sure to stop and say hello.

And if you can't make either event, plenty of helpful API advise is available 24/7 at RESTAPITutorial.com.

Until next time,

• Matthew (@libel_vox)