December 2017
Intermediate to advanced
78 pages
1h 33m
English
Content preview from APIs for Modern Commerce
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Chapter 4. Consuming APIs
Up to this point, we’ve discussed why APIs are important, how to model them, and how to implement the code behind them. In this chapter and the next, we’ll discuss how to best consume APIs.
Identify Clients
Broadly, your clients can fall into one of the following three categories:
- Internal applications
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Internal microservices that rely on functionality exposed by your APIs
- Digital Experience Platforms
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Platforms that allow non-technical and semi-technical business users to build experiences for different customers. Grew out of web content management space
- Custom frontends
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Custom web UIs, native mobile, embedded devices, social media, etc.
These three categories of clients have different requirements that will change how you model, build, and consume APIs.
Start by building an inventory of all known clients. If you have an existing API that you’re replacing, trace the source of all the inbound API calls. Your existing API may have clients you never knew about.
Then, imagine what kinds of clients you’ll see more of. If you’re selling consumer packaged goods, many of your future clients will probably be Internet of Things (IoT) devices, like smart refrigerators. If you’re selling apparel, many of your future clients will probably be magic mirrors and similar devices.
Finally, look at the characteristics and capabilities of each type of client:
- Language
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What type of language can be used to consume the APIs? Does it have to be plain REST, or can you ...
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O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.Julian F.
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.Addison B.
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I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.