Creating an Effective Mobile API
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Your visitors interact with content, not with your website. Content consistency is crucial to a successful user experience. Re-publishing is one option but it’s an inside-out action that relies on the authority controlling where the information goes. An API frees your data and the responsibility to where it is published and accessed. Mobile is a major consumer for your API but not every API is setup to handle the mass of requests coming from those devices. Learn how to mobile devices consume API’s with limited or low bandwidth and how to to tailor your API to be as efficient and effective as possible. http://environmentsforhumans.com/2012/doteduguru-summit/
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Creating an Effective Mobile API
- 1. Creating API’s for Mobile Nick DeNardis
- 2. @nickdenardis Associate Director of Web Communications Wayne State University http://wayne.edu/ Host of EDU Checkup http://educheckup.com/ Curator of EDU Snippits http://edusnippits.com/ Writer for .eduGuru http://doteduguru.com/
- 3. Disclaimer This talk is less about how to code an API but more about the strategy behind creating a flexible and resilient API.
- 5. Not just for robots. http://www.flickr.com/photos/stevent/3241986538/
- 6. The API’s job is to make the developer as successful as possible http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-hate-sandcastles-success-kid
- 7. Where isn’t it useful? http://www.flickr.com/photos/daychokesnight/2149714792/
- 11. Complications with mobile “always on”
- 12. Mobile isn’t going anywhere 1.45 Million devices per day 371,000 births per day http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1506
- 13. Mobile Data Traffic Expected To Rise 40- Fold Over Next Five Years http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/30/mobile-data-traffic-rise-40-fold/
- 14. Desktop 250 kb - Avg page weight 2.5 pages - Avg number per visit 1300 625 kb - Bandwidth per visit 975 650 Mobile 325 50 kb - Avg page weight 25 pages - Avg number per visit 0 Data Desktop Mobile 1.25 mb - Bandwidth per visit
- 15. Mobile Desktop 40 30 Millions of visitors 20 10 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 http://wayne.edu/
- 16. The Mobile Web is Slow And it’s mostly our fault
- 17. You can’t blame the network for everything CSS Images Javascript Initial HTML Cell Latency Time
- 18. Second Request Images New Content Cell Latency Time
- 19. Do less better
- 20. One size != fit all https://api.twitter.com/1/ https://us2.api.mailchimp.com/1.3/ https://api.foursquare.com/v2/ https://api.instagram.com/v1/ https://www.salesforce.com/services/Soap/c/18.0 https://api.wayne.edu/v1/ Think versioning from the start
- 21. SOAP REST The request: The request: GET /StockPrice HTTP/1.1 GET /StockPrice/IBM HTTP/1.1 Host: example.org Host: example.org Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8 Accept: text/xml Content-Length: nnn Accept-Charset: utf-8 <?xml version="1.0"?> The response: <env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/ 2003/05/soap-envelope" HTTP/1.1 200 OK xmlns:s="http://www.example.org/stock-service"> Content-Type: text/xml; charset=utf-8 <env:Body> Content-Length: nnn <s:GetStockQuote> <s:TickerSymbol>IBM</s:TickerSymbol> <?xml version="1.0"?> </s:GetStockQuote> <s:Quote xmlns:s="http://example.org/stock- </env:Body> service"> </env:Envelope> <s:TickerSymbol>IBM</s:TickerSymbol> <s:StockPrice>45.25</s:StockPrice> The response: </s:Quote> HTTP/1.1 200 OK Content-Type: application/soap+xml; charset=utf-8 Content-Length: nnn <?xml version="1.0"?> <env:Envelope xmlns:env="http://www.w3.org/ 2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:s="http://www.example.org/stock-service"> <env:Body> <s:GetStockQuoteResponse> <s:StockPrice>45.25</s:StockPrice> </s:GetStockQuoteResponse> </env:Body> 4 kb vs 2 kb </env:Envelope> Round Trip
- 22. Stick to REST
- 24. Your best friend JSON Easy to encode: $arr = array('a' => 1, 'b' => 2, 'c' => 3, 'd' => 4, 'e' => 5); json_encode($arr); Easy to decode: $json = '{"a":1,"b":2,"c":3,"d":4,"e":5}'; json_decode($json); Javascript: var myObject = eval('(' + json + ')');
- 26. Not everything is in the CMS Website CMS Gather & Clean Mobile Website Events Shadow storage Mobile App LDAP API Webserver Digital Signage Banner Third Party
- 27. Rolling your own API Trust no one.
- 28. Create. Read. Update. Delete. http://www.flickr.com/photos/fss/2181882493/
- 29. Start with a map http://www.flickr.com/photos/56684679@N08/6155875352/
- 31. GET /academic/colleges/listing GET /academic/colleges/info GET /academic/majors/listing GET /academic/majors/info GET /academic/classes/listing GET /academic/classes/info GET /parking/availability/listing GET /parking/availability/info
- 32. The devil is in the details Simple URL Response code Total count Data container Keep it lightweight 91 KB
- 33. Use only what you need Filters Less data 41 KB
- 34. Writing data
- 35. POST /admissions/rfi/add POST /admissions/visit/add POST /admissions/application/add POST /academic/colleges/add POST /academic/colleges/edit POST /academic/majors/add POST /academic/majors/edit
- 36. Soft Delete (keep all the data!)
- 37. POST /academic/colleges/remove POST /academic/majors/remove POST /academic/classes/remove POST /parking/availability/remove
- 38. Authentication /api/user/auth
- 41. APC <?php $bar = 'BAR'; apc_store('foo', $bar); var_dump(apc_fetch('foo')); ?>
- 43. Static files <?php if ((is_file($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'].'.json')) && (time()-filemtime($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'].'.json') < 3600)) { readfile($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'].'.json'); exit; } // (the php script itself goes here) echo $response; $fp = fopen($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME'].'.json', 'w'); fwrite($fp, $response); fclose($fp); ?>
- 44. HTML5 localStorage if (typeof(localStorage) == 'undefined' ) { alert('Your browser does not support HTML5 localStorage. Try upgrading.'); } else { try { localStorage.setItem("name", "Hello World!"); //saves to the database, } catch (e) { if (e == QUOTA_EXCEEDED_ERR) { alert('Quota exceeded!'); //data wasn't successfully saved due to quota exceed so throw an error } } document.write(localStorage.getItem("name")); //Hello World! localStorage.removeItem("name"); //deletes the matching item from the database } http://paperkilledrock.com/2010/05/html5-localstorage-part-one/
- 45. Expires header <?php header('Expires: '.gmdate('D, d M Y H:i:s GMT', time() + 3600)); ?> 1 Month 1 Week 1 Day Semesters Courses Events Subjects Media Experts News Degrees Map Categories No Cache Map Locations Course Availability Parking Availability
- 46. Our Stats Feb 2011 - In production 2.5 million requests 48% from mobile 21% iOS 23% Android 66% Web 95% GET’s 16 ms average response time
- 47. Examples
- 48. Mobile news
- 49. maps/locations/listing Google API events/event/listing directory/people/listing academic/courses/listing
- 50. maps/category/listing events/event/listing maps/location/info
- 51. faculty/profile/info go/url/info
- 52. Hackathon Community through data http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackny/5684887983/
- 53. Resources • http://apigee.com/ • http://rubyonrails.org/ • http://cakephp.org/ • http://37signals.com/svn/posts/3018-api-design-for-humans • http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2011/06/the-good-the-bad-the-ugly-of-rest- apis.html • http://sixrevisions.com/html/introduction-web-storage/ • http://webcomm.fiu.edu/2011/11/json-as-an-api-tool-and-why-its-awesome/ • http://doteduguru.com/id4579-results-higher-ed-cms-usage.html
- 54. Hackathons • http://dschool.stanford.edu/blog/2012/01/27/hack-d-kicks-off-more-than-a- dozen-projects-underway/ • http://civic.mit.edu/blog/schock/occupydata-hackathon-2-roundup • http://newmed.media.mit.edu/health-and-wellness-innovation-2012 • http://nyuad.nyu.edu/hackathon/about/ • http://startup.berkeley.edu/hackathon/ • http://www.njit.edu/hackathon/ • http://www.lib.umich.edu/art-architecture-engineering-library/ announcements/48-hour-mobile-app-hackathon
- 55. Questions? Don’t be shy.
- 56. Thank You @nickdenardis [email protected] http://nickdenardis.com/