An application programming interface (API) is the specification for which software is meant to be used by other software.

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2
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1answer
50 views

Should I provide client libraries in some select languages along with the APIs themselves?

Say I have created a web service based on RESTful APIs. Does it make sense to also provide users with a client library for the API in some select languages which are likely to be the most used ones? ...
-2
votes
0answers
39 views

Free API to estimate number of search results on a web crawler? [closed]

Estimating the number of search results for a phrase on the web has applications in terminology extraction, for filtering terms that are too broad to belong to a particular domain (e.g. "system" is a ...
0
votes
2answers
189 views

How my website should use it's own API?

Im building small web-service which will provide my users with data through API. Also, some data will be available right on my website. The question is about how to use my own API? Should my website ...
-1
votes
0answers
17 views

How to Connect sql server 2008 with eclipse juno to see the output of an API [migrated]

I am working as an API developer. I want to run my API's in eclipse but my database is not connected with my eclipse so upon executing the API its showing jdbc error. My question is how can i connect ...
-2
votes
0answers
39 views

socket programming using c and windows [closed]

Any one know how to do socket programming using c for windows OS? I know how to do it on linux but I want to do it using windows. Got any link tutorial links,libraries or API for that?
11
votes
5answers
279 views

In API design, when to use/avoid ad hoc polymorphism?

Sue is designing a JavaScript library, Magician.js. Its linchpin is a function which pulls a Rabbit out of the argument passed. She knows its users may want to pull a rabbit out of a String, a ...
-1
votes
0answers
18 views

Ubiquity Estimates of MPI & OpenMP in modern commercial software [closed]

I'm curious to know if any research has been collected estimating the percentage of modern commercial software that utilize parallel programming with MPI and OpenMP. Any links to research articles ...
0
votes
2answers
89 views

How to get different resources in a single endpoint in RESTful?

I have a REST webservice that have a couple of resources, like Company and User. But now I need to make a modification to the API to return a special list combining company, user and maybe other type ...
0
votes
0answers
30 views

What are the benefits of having a remote database for your command line utility

I'm current working on a command line app that will grab resources online for you when you're setting up a new project locally. Right now all the urls for the resources I need are hardcoded into the ...
-2
votes
0answers
40 views

Implementing network support with C++ in QtCreator [closed]

I've started using QtCreator to write and develop some code for desktop applications and now I want to include network support with it to link to REST API's with DropBox or some other stuff like that. ...
0
votes
1answer
64 views

REST API internal directory structure and RewriteEngine

I'm building a REST API. I don't want to have real folders in my directory structure, but I'm not quite sure what to use else. My REST API uses paths like this: ...
-1
votes
1answer
120 views

Good public API for use in demos and documentation? [closed]

I have created a utility library and open sourced it on Github, and I'd like to document the HTTP utilities. I created this around some apps I've developed, but none of the APIs I use are for public ...
2
votes
2answers
110 views

How to handle many arguments in an API wrapper?

I'm writing a PHP API wrapper for a third party API. I want to make all the methods consistent, but I'm not sure how to handle the number of arguments some API routes accept. One API request accepts ...
4
votes
2answers
121 views

Custom functions in a REST API

Looking at two of our entities Company and Address. A company has a billingAddress and a profileAddress. I'm unsure of how to implement a function to set the billing address versus the profile. Here ...
1
vote
1answer
110 views

Should I store UK postcode data in my database

I am building a website for a UK audience that will utilise location data to offer search results based on a desired location or home address. I have a large list of UK postcodes and geographic ...
-1
votes
1answer
90 views

Data aggregation like polyvore.com [closed]

I'm creating a website that is going to aggregate women shoes from across the web into one website. Kinda like polyvore.com does with all their products but mine is only going to be shoes. Which ...
2
votes
2answers
153 views

RESTful URI's, Creating a new noun/uri or add a queryparameter

I have a Person class with a one to many relationship to Employment. A Person in the CRM can have multiple Employments (historic data). My current REST URI for this class looks like this: ...
3
votes
3answers
237 views

How can I ensure a method is called only once when using a API?

In general, if I am using an API whose methods have side-effects that I only want to occur once, how can I guarantee that my own application only calls them once even if an error occurs before it can ...
0
votes
1answer
61 views

Web service for pulling up-to-date payroll tax information?

Are there any web services (json or xml) in which you can input demographic information about an employee and get back the tax rate that they are to be taxed at a federal, state, and local level?
1
vote
0answers
36 views

Listing of ecommerce Public API [closed]

What are some of the useful e-commerce public API for an application developer to leverage? Few examples would be Twitter API for performing twitter interaction, USPS API for tracking and delivery ...
0
votes
2answers
152 views

How does API design differ from general web application development design? [duplicate]

If I was working on a web application designing and writing an API how does that differ from a general web application development? What things would I need to consider and take into account? Are ...
3
votes
2answers
222 views

How can you provide a public writeable API and not get spammed?

So say you had a site like StackExchange. Now imagine you created a machine-writeable API capable of posting questions and comments and doing everything your browser can do. Of course, about 5 ...
5
votes
2answers
151 views

Web API URI Schema Design

I'm in the middle of designing an API for a very basic flashcard application for learning purposes and I'm wondering if you all think there can be any improvements. In the app, a Folder contains ...
4
votes
2answers
187 views

Requiring Explicit Null Reference Handling

One of the problems I have with null references is that they may not be exceptional. In my current position, there are few requirements and you are lucky if conventions are followed. This means being ...
22
votes
1answer
626 views

Why have hardware-accelerated vector graphics not taken off?

I'm working on an app that involves real-time manipulation of vector paths at 60fps, and I'm very surprised by how little information there is on the subject. At first, I tried to implement my idea ...
0
votes
0answers
54 views

Extracting data point locations from a postscript/pdf plot [closed]

There are a number of tools available for manually extracting the x/y coordinates of points in a data plot, such as WebPlotDigitizer and digitize. They work well when there are only a few ...
2
votes
2answers
85 views

What endpoints should I provide, if any, to permit connectivity testing for my web services?

What endpoints should I provide, if any, to permit connectivity / availability testing for my web services / Web API? TL;DR I am developing both the server and client in an enterprise environment. ...
2
votes
0answers
100 views

design practice for business layer when supporting API versioning

Is there any design pattern or practice recommended for business layer when dealing with multiple API version. For example, I have something like this. http://site.com/blogs/v1/?count=10 which ...
2
votes
1answer
215 views

How to count hits in an HTTP API without bogging down the DB

I'm building an API and want to count hits for each user. It's a HTTP API implemented in Python. I could keep the count in a database (using PostGreSQL) but it'll be a very busy API, so I don't want ...
9
votes
3answers
698 views

Joda Time vs Java Time

Although Joda is feature rich and more sophisticated than standard Java time, it may not always be the best thing to use. How do I decide if I should use Joda Time or Java Time in any Java code? Is ...
0
votes
1answer
81 views

Would it be possible to publish my code on an official site with a third-party library?

I'm building a rather large and extensive wrapper in Delphi for an email system called Mandrill. There are wrappers for this API in many other languages, but not for Delphi. So, I'm hoping to produce ...
1
vote
0answers
47 views

Designing a loosely coupled app -> stored proc interface for PostgreSQL. A couple of questions

I am in the middle of designing a next generation database access class for one of the programs I am building. We use PostgreSQL exclusively. Our current approach is procedural (largely inspired ...
4
votes
6answers
784 views

Testing a REST client against a REST Server. How to do fixtures?

When writing unit tests, it's common to use fixtures: little testable data, so we can say: 1. Get all clients should include Willy Wonka. 2. Delete client 3, and now get clients should not include ...
1
vote
2answers
136 views

Managing Alerts in Web Application Using RESTful API

I have designed a RESTful API and I am now working on creating a web application to use the service. One thing I am struggling with is how to manage alerts in the web application (similar to the ...
11
votes
4answers
426 views

Using natural language grammar in fluent API

I'm tinkering with a query abstraction over WebSQL/Phonegap Database API, and I find myself both drawn to, and doubtful of, defining a fluent API that mimics the use of natural English language ...
1
vote
0answers
109 views

How to optimize calls to multiple APIs at once and return as one set?

I have a web app that searches across 2 APIs right now. I have my own Restful web service that I call, and it does all the work on the backend to asynchronously call the 2 APIs and concatenate them ...
19
votes
8answers
1k views

“Public APIs are forever: Only one chance to get it right”?

In an OS book I just read that, "Public APIs are forever: Only one chance to get it right". Is it true? Is it applicable only in APIs of Operating Systems or other APIs too? For example, will this be ...
8
votes
1answer
498 views

What API design for storing generic data in a more specific format?

for In the project I am working on we send messages about widgets over message queues, serializing them onto the queues as XML. The XML schema contains tags for properties that are common to all types ...
1
vote
2answers
139 views

Is it possible to use a “non-commercial” REST API in a for-pay app?

I am interested in integrating the results of 3rd-party news API's into my for-pay application. The APIs would be a very small part of the app (e. g. the app is not just reselling the APIs). I have ...
2
votes
2answers
216 views

Workflow for building a RESTful API

I am building a RESTful API, and so far, to make sure that my resources work as I need them to, I am using a REST client called Postman. This makes it easy for me to store routes and quickly make ...
4
votes
1answer
319 views

When to use nested resources in a RESTful API

I have two resources: users and links. Users can have several links associated with them. I have designed my RESTful API so that you can reach the links associated with a user at the following URI: ...
0
votes
2answers
80 views

Encapsulate external JavaScript library

I am about to develop a ASP.NET MVC 4 project that will make use of maps. Our company has it's own map API which is very basic at the moment, but is intended to be further developed in future to match ...
5
votes
2answers
415 views

Trailing slash in RESTful API

I have been having a debate about what to do with a trailing slash in a RESTful API. Lets say I have a resource called dogs and subordinate resources for individual dogs. We can therefore do the ...
1
vote
2answers
167 views

Management wants an API in purchased software

My company wants to purchase new software for our General Ledger. We want to be able to interface it with various other sytems, all purchased. Nothing is custom built. The software our Accountants ...
1
vote
1answer
349 views

OCR API (in Java) with Word (NOT MS-WORD) extraction [closed]

My Situation I need to develop an application which does crowd-sourced Image-To-Text service (just like google's reCaptcha). So I need an OCR API which can find words in an image with some text. ...
3
votes
2answers
160 views

Library design: provide a common header file or multiple headers

There are essentially two camps of library designers concerning the design of the final header file inclusion: Provide a single header file that includes every other header file that makes up the ...
5
votes
2answers
469 views

Implementing the command pattern in a RESTful API

I'm in the process of designing an HTTP API, hopefully making it as RESTful as possible. There are some actions which functionality spreads over a few resources, and sometime needs to be undone. I ...
14
votes
3answers
428 views

Does decoupling trump DRY in REST?

I am building a REST API to expose most of functionality of an existing Java API. Both APIs are for internal use within my organization; I do not have to design for external use. I have influence ...
3
votes
0answers
90 views

Programming games, virtual environment or an API? [closed]

A friend and I are thinking of making/expanding a programming game. The sort of thing to help new or young programmers enter into the field. Since there was a minor drone craze at the local ...
1
vote
0answers
292 views

Google Maps - Geofence a route

I'm looking at implementing a PHP based application, where by you have a certain route for example London to Edinburgh. Along this route, I want to calculate say a 10mi Radius or Polygon around the ...

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