WSO2 Advantage Webinar

Extensible API Management

Nuwan DiasSenior Software Engineer, WSO2

15/10/2013

About WSO2

• Providing the only complete open source componentized cloud platform

– Dedicated to removing all the stumbling blocks to enterprise agility– Enabling you to focus on business logic and business value

• Recognized by leading analyst firms as visionaries and leaders– Gartner cites WSO2 as visionaries in all 3 categories of

application infrastructure– Forrester places WSO2 in top 2 for API Management

• Global corporation with offices in USA, UK & Sri Lanka– 200+ employees and growing

• Business model of selling comprehensive support & maintenance for our products

150+ globally positioned support customers

Agenda

• Evolution of APIs

• Why should an API be extensible

• Designing an extensible API

• Real World Use Cases

Evolution of APIs

• Companies used phone, mail, advertising to reach customers.

• Then came websites, where companies advertised themselves.

• WAP versions of websites....... very limited success.

• Mobile web browsers did not live up to its potential

• Companies started building their own Apps (Applications)

• ** If you could reach your consumers through your Apps, how much further can you reach through Apps developed by a developer community.

What is Extensibility ?

• Hooks or plug-points to insert one's own programming routines

to the incoming and/or outgoing message flows.

Why should an API be extensible ?

• Helps you to reach the long tail...

• Longer lifetime of the API

• Enables your API to connect to other libraries or entire Applications

• Helps you get over mistakes.

Designing an Extensible API.

• Always return a consistent wrapper Object

– Ex: A successful response for a database query.<product> <name>Swiss Watch</name> <category>Watches</category> <color>Black</color> </product>

– When no data found<error>No Data Found</error>

– A better approach would be <response> <errorCode>0</errorCode> <product> <name>Swiss Watch</name> <category>Watches</category> <color>Black</color> </product> </response>

Designing an Extensible API.....

• Support Multiple Formats

– Ex: XML/JSON

• Keep parameter count consistent

• Support API Versioning

• Keep response key types consistent

– Ex: If you have an API that returns <bookid type=”integer”>12831</bookid>

– Do not have another api which returns <bookid>

• Structure the API URL– Ex: http://myproducts.com/{api}/{resource}

http://myproducts.com/products/product/1

http://myproducts.com/products/category/electronics

Designing an Extensible API.....

• Use OAuth

• Document your API religiously

Real World Use Cases

• Conversion from XML to JSON

Real World Use Cases

• Location Based Dispatching

Questions ?

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