Upgrade to Pro
— share decks privately, control downloads, hide ads and more …
Speaker Deck
Features
Speaker Deck
PRO
Sign in
Sign up for free
Search
Search
Three simple rules for building APIs
Search
Ben Balter
March 31, 2015
Technology
1
480
Three simple rules for building APIs
APIs should be simple, semantic, and supported.
Ben Balter
March 31, 2015
Tweet
Share
More Decks by Ben Balter
See All by Ben Balter
A community of communities: Empowering maintainers to grow communities around their code
benbalter
1
1.3k
Fostering a culture of collaboration
benbalter
0
220
Growing open source communities on GitHub around your WordPress plugin or theme
benbalter
1
240
It takes a digital village
benbalter
1
450
Open source workflows in highly regulated environments
benbalter
0
92
Optimize for Developer Happiness
benbalter
0
280
The technology is the easy part
benbalter
2
290
How to foster an open source culture inside Government
benbalter
3
2.4k
Open source inspired workflows for open (and closed) geospatial data
benbalter
0
150
Other Decks in Technology
See All in Technology
サイバー攻撃のシミュレーション:攻撃者の視点からみる防御のむずかしさ!AWSで試してみよう / 20250423 Kumiko Hemmi
shift_evolve
PRO
1
190
Gemini in Android Studio - Google I/O Bangkok '25
akexorcist
0
100
データエンジニアがクラシルでやりたいことの現在地
gappy50
3
760
SAE J1939シミュレーション環境構築
daikiokazaki
1
200
地域コミュニティへの「感謝」と「恩返し」 / 20250726jawsug-tochigi
kasacchiful
0
110
【CEDEC2025】現場を理解して実現!ゲーム開発を効率化するWebサービスの開発と、利用促進のための継続的な改善
cygames
PRO
0
480
帳票構造化タスクにおけるLLMファインチューニングの性能評価
yosukeyoshida
1
170
[TechNight #91] Oracle Database 最新パフォーマンス分析手法
oracle4engineer
PRO
3
280
Claude Codeが働くAI中心の業務システム構築の挑戦―AIエージェント中心の働き方を目指して
os1ma
7
700
Microsoft Learn MCP/Fabric データエージェント/Fabric MCP/Copilot Studio-簡単・便利なAIエージェント作ってみた -"Building Simple and Powerful AI Agents with Microsoft Learn MCP, Fabric Data Agent, Fabric MCP, and Copilot Studio"-
reireireijinjin6
1
190
alecthomas/kong はいいぞ
fujiwara3
6
1.2k
増え続ける脆弱性に立ち向かう: 事前対策と優先度づけによる 持続可能な脆弱性管理 / Confronting the Rise of Vulnerabilities: Sustainable Management Through Proactive Measures and Prioritization
nttcom
1
230
Featured
See All Featured
The Invisible Side of Design
smashingmag
301
51k
A Tale of Four Properties
chriscoyier
160
23k
StorybookのUI Testing Handbookを読んだ
zakiyama
30
5.9k
Into the Great Unknown - MozCon
thekraken
40
1.9k
Become a Pro
speakerdeck
PRO
29
5.4k
Sharpening the Axe: The Primacy of Toolmaking
bcantrill
44
2.4k
Fight the Zombie Pattern Library - RWD Summit 2016
marcelosomers
234
17k
Done Done
chrislema
185
16k
Building Adaptive Systems
keathley
43
2.7k
Responsive Adventures: Dirty Tricks From The Dark Corners of Front-End
smashingmag
251
21k
ピンチをチャンスに:未来をつくるプロダクトロードマップ #pmconf2020
aki_iinuma
126
53k
Site-Speed That Sticks
csswizardry
10
730
Transcript
! Three simple rules for building an API Ben Balter
@benbalter
[email protected]
government.github.com
! All APIs should be three things
! APIs should be simple
! APIs should be semantic
! APIs should be supported
! All APIs should be simple
! Let’s say you want a list of open source
licenses…
! Option 0: scrape opensource.org Option 1: scrape spdx.org Option
2: parce an excel file
! Pro-tip: prototype your API
! choosealicense.com/licenses.json
! Meh.
! api.github.com/licenses
None
! api.github.com/licenses/mit
None
! api.github.com/repos/benbalter/gman
None
! All APIs should be semantic
! FDsys is not
! The FAR
! (Thunder and dramatic music)
None
! Web developers love 2+ MB XML files
! Data should be immediately valuable
! github.com/benbalter/so_far_so_good
! Data should make sense to computers
None
! Data should make sense to humans
None
! Data shouldn’t mimic their paper counterparts
! Data should be reimagined for the web
! Optimize for developer happiness
! All APIs should be supported
!
[email protected]
doesn’t scale
!
[email protected]
is a great way to answer the same
question over and over again
! Users have (the same) questions
! The only appropriate way to answer a question about
your API is with a URL
! Today, the first step to solving any problem is
to Google it
! Microsoft has been rocking the knowledge base for decades
! Bonus #1: Your community will answer its own questions
None
! Bonus #2: Collaborative documentation
None
None
! If you liked it then you should have put
a URL on it
! To review…
! APIs should be simple
! APIs should be semantic
! APIs should be supported
! Three simple rules for building an API Ben Balter
@benbalter
[email protected]
government.github.com