APIs · A Strategy Guide by Jacobson, Daniel -- Read -- Imperial Library of Trantor

Index

APIs: A Strategy Guide

Preface

Conventions Used in This Book Using Code Examples Acknowledgments Safari® Books Online How to Contact Us

1. The API Opportunity

Why We Wrote This Book Who Is This Book For? What Is an API?

How Is an API Different from a Website? …But APIs and Websites Have a Lot in Common

Who Uses an API? Types of APIs Why Now?

2. APIs as a Business Strategy

The Growth of APIs Why You Might Need an API

You Need a Second Mobile App Your Customers or Partners Ask for an API Your Site Is Getting Screen-Scraped You Need More Flexibility in Providing Content You Have Data to Make Available Your Competition Has an API You Want to Let Potential Partners Test the Waters You Want to Scale Integration with Customers and Partners An API Improves the Technical Architecture

3. Understanding the API Value Chain

Defining the Value Chain: Ask Key Questions Creating a Private API Value Chain

Ways to Use a Private API

Efficiently Creating Public Apps Supporting Partner Relationships Creating Internal Apps

Benefits of Private APIs Risks Related to Private APIs

Creating a Public API Value Chain

Ways to Use a Public API

Enhancing Value and Extending Your Brand Reaching Niche Markets Expanding Reach Across Platforms and Devices Fostering Innovation

Benefits of Public APIs Risks Related to Public APIs

Shifting: Private to Public, Public to Private

Netflix: Public API to Private API

API Business Models for Working with Partners

Expanding Reach: More Apps, More Platforms Gaining Indirect Revenue Increasing Innovation through Partners Increasing Application Value through Integration Freemium Use

Programmable Web’s View of API Business Models

4. Crafting Your API Product Strategy

Establish a Clear Business Objective Have a Vision for Your API API Strategy Basics

APIs Need a Business Sponsor

Types of API Strategies

Private API Strategies Public API Strategies

Putting Together a Team

The Developer Evangelist

Objections to APIs

5. Key Design Principles for APIs

Designing APIs for Specific Audiences

Designing for Developers Designing for Application Users

Best Practices for API Design

Differentiate Your API Make Your API Easy to Try and Use Make Your API Easy to Understand Don’t Do Anything Weird Less Is More Target a Specific Developer Segment

Technical Considerations for API Design

REST

Pure REST Pragmatic REST Pragmatic RESTful Principles

Example: Designing with Pragmatic REST

Sometimes REST Needs a Rest XML vs. JSON

Versioning and API Design

Having a Mediation Layer Taking the Plunge: Going Versionless

Designing Infrastructure for APIs

Data Center or Cloud? Caching Strategies Controlling API Traffic

6. API Security and User Management

User Management

Do You Need to Start from Scratch? Questions to Ask About User Management

Identification Authentication: Proving Who You Are

Usernames and Passwords Session-Based Authentication Other Authentication Methods OAuth Fortify Authentication with SSL

Encryption Threat Detection and Prevention

SQL Injection XML and JSON Attacks Data Masking

General Recommendations

API Data Protection Recommendations API Security Recommendations

7. Legal Considerations for Your API Strategy

Rights Management

In Practice: Rights Management at NPR

Contracts Rights Tagging System Rights Management System

Contracts and Terms of Use Privacy Policies Data Retention Policies Attribution of Content and Branding Responding to Misuse

8. Operating and Managing an API

Operating an API

Operational Information on Demand: The API Status Page Handling Ops Issues Service-Level Agreements Issue Management Operational Monitoring and Support Documenting Your API Operations Runbook

Traffic Management Approaches

Business-Level Traffic Management

Quotas Throttling

Operational Traffic Management

Spike Arresting

Traffic Management and Scalability API Gateways

Approaches to API Gateways in the Cloud

9. Measuring the Success of Your API

Handling API Metrics

Why Capture Usage Metrics? Requests and Responses Impressions Loyalty

Operational Metrics

Effectiveness Metrics Performance Metrics

Key Questions to Ask about API Performance How Metrics Evolved at NPR

10. Engaging Developers to Drive Adoption

What Motivates Developers? Key Parts of a Developer Program Offering

Product (or First You Need a Great API!) Access to Your API and to You Business Terms and SLA Expectations Content Awareness of Your API Focus on the Full Developer Experience Community

The Anatomy of a Developer Portal The Dos and Don’ts of Developer Engagement

Dos

Look Alive! Target Alpha Geeks Create Scale and Leverage Foster Developer Community Seek Out Key Influencers Plug into Other Developer Communities

Don’ts

No differentiation for the API (it’s just like so-and-so’s API) Making it hard to sign up Marketing the API Overfocus on the developer portal Selecting the wrong community manager Having an overly broad focus

11. Epilogue: Just the Beginning About the Authors

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