Net API Notes for 2022/03/10 - Issue 192
Despite the single-digit temps when I woke this morning, Spring is right around the corner. If the number of milestones is any indicator, things are starting to heat up. Let's get to those notes!
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NOTES
IS "API-FIRST" ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA?
STRAT / DESIGN / DOC / DEV & TEST / DEPLOY / SECURITY / MONITOR / DISCOVERY
First off, I acknowledge that the title of this video presentation with Innoq's Stefan Tilkov, "Why API-first might not be a good idea", is a bit link-baity. Also, there seems to be a missed opportunity to clarify the difference between "API-first" and "API-Design first" (the former is a requirement that the primary means of functionality exposure must be via API, the latter promotes iterating on the interface before programming code).
However, those minor complaints aside, the presentation recaps several compelling reasons why blindly copying software architecture from somewhere else isn't a recipe for success - or, as Tilkov aptly describes the process, creating "architecture of convenience".
Ultimately, it is not that API-first is wrong. The blind application of an approach without exception is the problem. It is a great message, and I highly recommend it.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN EDI AND API
STRAT / DESIGN / DOC / DEV & TEST / DEPLOY / SECURITY / MONITOR / DISCOVERY
Any reader of this newsletter is familiar with the power of the web, or net-based, APIs in connecting distributed systems. However, before web APIs, there was EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange. EDI has played a critical role in the logistics, automotive, and retail industries for decades.
Given its "legacy" status, does EDI have a place in today's development landscape? Are there places where EDI excels over net APIs? Olga Annenko attempts to answer those questions and more in her piece on the Elastic.io blog.
Are you currently working through an EDI-to-API transformation? How is that going? I'd love to hear how people are tackling that challenge in the wild.
BUILDING TOOLS FOR "THE 99%" OF DEVELOPERS
STRAT / DESIGN / DOC / DEV & TEST / DEPLOY / SECURITY / MONITOR / DISCOVERY
The mention of EDI reminded me of an excellent, recent article from Akita founder, Jean Yang. In "Building for the 99% Developers", Jean argues a vast difference exists between what "developer-influences" are discussing versus the daily reality for most developers.
"I've encountered so many teams who say that migration will happen 'next quarter.' The reality is that, even when they manage to finally start, migrations have become continuous, rather than discrete, processes. A 99% Developer team with legacy code and a lean team is probably never going to convert their entire code base over to microservices or GraphQL. For most organizations, tech stacks and tool chains are heterogeneous, a combination of the layers of languages, frameworks, and tools that have been picked up over the years."
Jean does an excellent job of not only laying out the problem but also suggesting some solutions.
MILESTONES
- GraphQL developer platform, Hasura, raises a $100 million Series C.
- Have I mentioned API-Diff.io? It's a very useful site for easily seeing the differences between two different API specifications. Supported formats include OpenAPI, AsyncAPI, GraphQL, and GRPC.
- Cloudflare released its Landscape of API Traffic report. As reported by InfoQ, API traffic grew the fastest among all traffic types, up by 21% in the review period.
- The Azure API team is currently running a survey for those building microservices. They want to hear about people's experiences and pain points. Give it a look.
- While you're in a survey-taking mood, the API Terms of Service research project wants to hear about your experiences with API Terms of Service. The responses will be used to drive recommendations on how to make terms of service more transparent.
- DRPC has launched as a "lightweight" alternative to gRPC.
- Nearing the end, from broader software architecture land, a new paper purports that "Despite hundreds of software architecture papers in the last 15 years, the direct evident impact from academic papers on software architecting practices appears underwhelming." As an industry, are we destined to ignore research? Or is there something else going on? You can read for yourself here.
WRAPPING UP
In last week's API3 newsletter edition, I linked to several aid organizations involved in mitigating the worst of the Ukrainian/Russian war. In addition to those, I'll also mention that the Ukrainian Red Cross needs help. There's also a humble bundle currently raising money for the International Medical Corps and Voices of Children. For a $10 donation, you receive nearly a thousand games. If you are in a position to help, please give these efforts some consideration.
Thank you, finally, to this newsletter's Patrons. They help make this newsletter what it is. In this week's podcast exclusive for Patrons, I recap the social-media reaction (and my response) to last week's API3 post.
Till next time,
Matthew @libel_vox and matthewreinbold.com
While I work at Concentrix Catalyst, a pair of dutiful purple suspenders supporting an expanding industry waistline, the opinions presented above are mine.