REST API NOTES FOR 2015/06/29

Hello, hello, hello! Another day, another airport! Thankfully, security was hyper efficient (and I'm paranoid about arriving early) so I have just enough time to dash off another quick copy of my RESTful API Notes!

DOCUMENT YOUR API... WITH CATS

Sometimes a little sugar helps the medicine go down. In the case of Anya Stettler and her presentation, that sugar is cats. Her slides, "Documenting APIs with Cats" is so much more than a gimmick. In this substantial deck she forcefully lays out why documentation shouldn't fall to the back-burner, surveys a plethora of successful implementations, and shares how to do it effectively.

TESTING YOUR API... WITH DARREL MILLER

Another aspect of RESTful API development that often gets short shrift is testing. While numerous procedures have been developed for web based testing, API testing - for many - still remains a process of poking and prodding with Postman. Darrel Miller and his hour long presentation, "Succeeding with Failing" is now available on Vimeo. Darrel is also a big hypermedia fan; his "Crafting Evolvable Web API Representations" is also available for viewing.

MANAGING YOUR API... WITH OAUTH

Phil Windley, an icon of the Utah technology scene, recently posted a piece on the challenges of "API Management and Microservices". This is an area where people have questions. As more teams begin adopting the microservice model (as we saw last time) people will continue to seek optimizations in places that they probably shouldn't.

WRAPPING UP

It has been a busy summer - and it has only just begun! Lots more is sure to come as we continue down this road of (machine) discovery!

Till Next Time, Matthew @libel_vox