Your API Consumers Aren’t Who You Think They Are

Your API Consumers Aren’t Who You Think They Are

Hello.

- I’m Bryan Helmig- Co-founder @ Zapier- CWO (chief whiskey officer)

automation platform

Zapier ♥ APIs. A lot.

- h’s of m’s API calls/mo

- 300k+ unique integrations across 200+ APIs

We’ve noticed a bitof a shift....

A shift in API consumption.

Who you might think consumes

your API...

"Is this really RESTful?"

"Can you do bulk multipart uploads?"

Who actually consumes your

API...

"Where can I buy the API* tokens?"

* pronounced "appy"

"How do I hook my MS Access into the REST?"

Non-coders are increasingly

consuming APIs.

This is awesome.

A•P•I n. enable missing features

(some assembly required)

But will they feel empowered or overwhelmed?

What sort of crazy features are they

dreaming up?

CRUD automation.

What can we do to help these users consume APIs?

What can we do to improve APIs for CRUD automation?

Easier Documentation

Better introduction.

Provide a wedge.

Live data.

Multiple Auth Mechanisms

OAuth for platforms...

...API keys or basic auth for OMWP.

Live code.

Useful Error Messages

401: Not authenticated.

404: Not found.

Serialize failures the same way.

Do What I Mean

A sufficiently intelligent error...

...why not just do what they meant?

Within reason, of course.

What can we do to help these users consume APIs?

What can we do to improve APIs for CRUD automation?

Flexible Endpoints

Automation is long tail.

Order, filter, paginate, hydrate...

Complexity.

Get Real (Time)

Naive cRud means polling.

Webhooks are great!

Skip long-polling or websockets.

PATCH & Upsert

PATCH fixes unintentional nulls.

Upsert handles uniqueness.

Less complexity!

What can we do to help these users consume APIs?

What can we do to improve APIs for CRUD automation?

Who is really at the end of your API requests?

@[email protected]

?