REST API Notes for 2015/07/27 - News & Special Announcement(s)

HAPPY APICRAFT DAY! Today marks the beginning of the wonderful three day yearly unconference held in Detroit. While I, sadly, can't be there in person, I'll be camping their hashtag ( #apicraft ) and watching for emerging themes and referential work.

Speaking of referential work, let's get into this newsletter's batch of notable RESTful API news.

AUDITING SAM NEWMAN'S BUILDING MICROSERVICES

Sam Newman is the author of the extremely excellent Building Microservices. In June, Sami Lamti had an opportunity to attend a workshop by Sam. He graciously shared his impressions in not one, not two, but four substantial posts. They are:

• Defining Microservices, and an Introduction to Service Modeling
• Applying Microservices to Existing Code, and Issues of Continuous Integration
• Security, Orchestration, Choreography, and Testing
• More on Testing and Microservice Versioning

If you only load one series up in your browser for perusal later, this would be the one.

API UGLY DUCKLINGS?

It can be difficult to remain objective when you create something new, whether a blog post or an API. Andy Thurai, in his work as a consultant, runs into many APIs that their creators perceive as great but, in the larger industry context, fail in some significant way. In "The 'Ugly Duckling' API Syndrome" he lists a number of fallacies that companies might be operating under. If you've created an API, how many of these apply to you?

MANAGING API COMPLEXITY

The last note worth mention is "Balancing Complexity and Simplicity in API Design" by Bill Doerrfeld. Writing on the Nordic APIs blog, he sets up the careful balancing act API producers have between usability and functionality. The challenge is substantial.ny API designer would be wise to stop and reflect on whether their decisions are skewing too far in one direction or another.

WRAPPING UP

I'll end this email with a couple announcements. The first is I've created a new public resource for those interested in attending an API-related event in person. I've been asked "since I've missed APICraft, what are my other conference options?" The website http://webapi.events solves that problem. It is a comprehensive list of RESTful API events happening around the world, sortable by area, type, and more. Let me know if there are more ways to make it even more useful.

Next, I'm please to announce that I'll be joining Capital One in August. Their executive support for creating an API culture is impressive. There's also tremendous opportunity for collaboration and professional growth with the team I'll be joining. As such, I'll transition from a software architecture to product management role. But while the titles change, this newsletter won't. If anything, the daily interactions with more voices on a bigger stage means a broader, more informed perspective on what really matters.

That's it! Hope your summer is going swimmingly and I look forward to next time,

Matthew @libel_vox