An application programming interface (API) is the specification for which software is meant to be used by other software.
-2
votes
0answers
39 views
Node.js to connect two APIs? [closed]
I'm looking to build a service that connect REST API's from two web services I use. (Trello.com & Wunderlist.com) They both have REST API's with JSON outputs, and as I understand it node.js would ...
0
votes
1answer
24 views
What is the idiomatic way in REST to handle field level permissions?
REST APIs conventionally expose resources addressed at the object level. While it's easy to do object level permissions using the appropriate HTTP responses, handling field level permissions is a bit ...
-1
votes
0answers
16 views
How to create a recurring REST API get / parse results / publish? [closed]
I am web newb - I ask forgiveness because I don't know where to start so Google is only going so far.
Project: to make a physical bell ring whenever a jira ticket is "completed"
What's involved: ...
3
votes
1answer
149 views
Grouping and nesting of REST APIs
My question is around best practice of aggregating or grouping REST APIs.
I have a scenario where there are many different vendors, data sources, etc. and I think grouping REST APIs would make a lot ...
0
votes
2answers
422 views
Manage content for multiple websites and mobile apps
I need to manage content (pages, key/value list, assets and more) in one webbased system for multiple websites and mobile apps.
My idea is to create a web api, secured with tokens for apps and sites ...
1
vote
0answers
27 views
Can a linux distribution provide an API to a proprietary codec? If so under what conditions?
As an example lets take the MPEG2 codec, let us say I am building a Linux distribution which I intend to ship in two pieces.
Piece 1: (free)
Core libraries and applications
Piece 2: (paid) ...
8
votes
5answers
3k views
REST API concepts
I have three questions about REST API design that I'm hoping someone can shed some light on. I've searched relentlessly for many hours but haven't found answers to my questions anywhere (maybe I just ...
1
vote
1answer
244 views
Merge two different API calls into One
I have two different apps in my django project. One is "comment" and an other one is "files". A comment might save some file attached to it.
The current way of creating a comment with attachments is ...
0
votes
0answers
50 views
Should all public API POCO value-type properties be nullables?
I use nullable value types a lot when designing classes that have properties which may remain null, i.e. when the object is being persisted. For example:
public int? MyProperty { get; set; }
My ...
0
votes
1answer
70 views
Is this pattern RESTful? Or something else?
I'm working on a new project that will create a web-based API to perform CRUD operations on a relational database.
Originally, I was going to create the API as http-based, and make it RESTful so ...
1
vote
1answer
63 views
How do I write a REStful API's functional specifications?
I've been looking for answers about writing functional specifications for a software for a while now but I can't seem to find an answer to my specific case.
I think I understand the difference ...
0
votes
0answers
42 views
How to protect a public tracking API?
Let's say company X has websites A, B, and C. It would like to track how people are visiting them in ways that Google's Analytics and other services can't. So we company X provides a web API to track ...
1
vote
1answer
53 views
Technique to synchronize error codes in a same-project-API
In the project I am working right now, we have some python and some C# code. At some point, I call from python a subprocess which starts a C# executable. This C# code returns an error code, which has ...
2
votes
2answers
299 views
What's the best way of building an administrative UI for an existing SPA application?
I’m working on an application where the client-side interface and backend server are completely separate applications. The backend is written in Ruby and only serves JSON via HTTP. The client is a ...
2
votes
2answers
72 views
Web API: avoiding name conflicts in URL query parameters
I am implementing a REST-like API and have just faced an interesting problem. There is a need to provide a resource with an open list of query parameters to filter the results.
For example:
GET ...
3
votes
1answer
59 views
How does this kind of application and DDD relate?
In Domain-Driven Design the application is divided, as I understand, into four layers:
Presentation Layer
Application Layer
Domain Layer
Infrastructure Layer
I understand this well, for instance, ...
1
vote
2answers
96 views
How should I provide detailed information about an error, if not through HTTP status codes?
This question comes from here. I believe it deserves to be on its own instead of being lost in a long question with multiple points.
I'm building an API and find myself limited by HTTP error ...
-1
votes
1answer
109 views
If I find a public web API am I allowed to use it in my application? [closed]
If I find a public web API (by public I mean that isn't protected by any type of authentication) what do I need to do so that I am allowed to use it in my own application?
Is it enough to read and ...
0
votes
1answer
158 views
Manage the persistence of entities on iOS in several places: CoreData on the device, iCloud and on a REST API
For the needs of a project, I would persist the datas contained in Core Data in several places depending on the state of the user.
If the user is logged to my API -> Persist the datas on my API.
...
12
votes
1answer
517 views
How discrete should a RESTful API be?
I've never built a RESTful API before and I am wondering how discrete should it be?
For example lets say I have a customer which has a name, address, phone number, email address, language, etc.
Does ...
0
votes
1answer
84 views
Is set of libraries called API only if it talks to a system/server?
I have read few articles about API. Can't find the reference now.
In some of them, they define API as set of tools, routines and protocols which are helping programmer to build a software with use of ...
1
vote
1answer
70 views
Backend as a Service (BAAS): temporary or long term solution?
Right now I'm building an app that relies heavily on Parse.com's products. The app uses nearly all of their features:
Data storage
User management
Push messages
Analytics
Crash reporting
There are ...
3
votes
3answers
380 views
Is it actually worth unit-testing an API client?
This is something that's been troubling me for a while now. Is it actually worth unit-testing an API client?
Let's say you're creating a small class to abstract-away the calls to a petshop REST API. ...
3
votes
1answer
139 views
What's best for a client library: userland code or schema files?
I'm building a client library that consumes a collection of OpenStack API services. I know that as time goes on more services will be added - so I want to come up with a clean and neat way of ...
1
vote
1answer
96 views
How to design a RESTful API with good performance
When designing RESTful APIs, one of the rules is: "URI designates exactly one resource" , but in the real world we also like good performance and one thing to kill performance is the N+1 problem.
So ...
0
votes
1answer
114 views
When passing dates/datetimes as url parameters in an API, which format is better - unix timestamp or date string (ISO 8601) [closed]
Interesting question came up at work in regards to the better format of passing a date/datetime as a url parameter in an API: Is it better to pass as a unix timestamp, or as a plaintext date string ...
3
votes
1answer
1k views
Why has the PowerCollections C# library recently declined in popularity? [closed]
I just looked at the statistics for the PowerCollections C# library and noticed a sharp decrease in quantity of downloads.
What may be the cause? Is there something better I should be using?
0
votes
1answer
33 views
RESTful way of referencing other resources in the request body
Let's assume that I have a resource called group with the following representation:
{
"id": 1,
"name": "Superheroes"
"_links": {
"self": {
"href": ...
0
votes
0answers
47 views
How to consume inconsistent REST API with Mongo DB backend?
We are using a third party REST API and we are building one of the pages on our ASP.NET site around the data it delivers. We get results in JSON, and interact with it mostly using .NET MongoDB Driver.
...
6
votes
3answers
540 views
Designing a REST api by URI vs query string
Let's say I have three resources that are related like so:
Grandparent (collection) -> Parent (collection) -> and Child (collection)
The above depicts the relationship among these resources ...
1
vote
1answer
61 views
RavenDb - Get data through a REST Web API
I would like to build a RESTful API where I need to get data from a RavenHQ-cloud-database. First of all, is this possible?
The idea is to have multiple applications (xamarin-app, mvc-app, etc.) and ...
2
votes
2answers
330 views
What is the best way to create REST API error response model and error codes system?
My REST implementation will return errors in JSON with next structure:
{
"http_response":400,
"dev_message":"There is a problem",
"message_for_user":"Bad request",
...
13
votes
6answers
6k views
RESTFul: state changing actions
I'am planning to build RESTfull API but there are some architectural questions that are creating some problems in my head. Adding backend bussiness logic to clients is option that I would like to ...
0
votes
2answers
106 views
Periodically polling an API, are there alternatives?
I'm currently working on a service that is supposed to aggregate data from a number of APIs, unify the data, and offer it through another API to the users. I had a couple of ideas for solving this, ...
1
vote
1answer
67 views
Purpose of authentication on API's?
After asking this question I found that I have a different question. What's the purpose of authenticating an API anyway?
Take Twitter for instance. If you want to use this link to load some user's ...
1
vote
2answers
231 views
Is there actually an advantage to using Win API calls for file access?
I remember coding file access using the Win API about 15 years ago. It was much faster than using the FileStream of my language at the time (Delphi).
I spent a while today experimenting in C# under ...
1
vote
1answer
43 views
Breaking dependencies on remote APIs
The system I'm working on has a core web application where the bulk of the work is done. However, it relies on another server to handle transactional finance data. It connects to the server using a ...
0
votes
0answers
72 views
Separation of web server and stateless REST API
Currently, I have a single Node server that provides both (a) stateless API routes returning JSON, and (b) session-based web routes. My API routes and web routes have started sharing a lot of code, ...
3
votes
4answers
306 views
int * vs int [N] vs int (*)[N] in functions parameters. Which one do you think is better?
When programming in C (or C++) there are three different ways to specify the parameter in a function that takes an array.
Here is an example (implementing std::accumulate from C++ in C) that shows ...
1
vote
1answer
68 views
Handling Slow External API's in Web Application
So I have got an application that during various steps during a user's process will transmit and receive data from external API's.
Currently the way this is handled is fairly rudimentary. There ...
2
votes
3answers
89 views
Architecture for an event admission ticket scanner for events with multiple entries
I am working on a service that lets event organizers sell tickets to their events online (a lot like Eventbrite to be honest).
The customers then print the tickets themselves (each ticket has a ...
2
votes
2answers
350 views
PHP MVC as backend for iOS app
So, essentially, the question is, to develop a PHP back-end to an iOS application, would you implement an MVC architecture on the PHP side? Or no, since the client side (iOS) already has an MVC ...
2
votes
2answers
356 views
How to present a stable data model in a public API that allows internal data structures to be changed without breaking the public view of the data?
I am in the process of developing an application that allows users to write C# scripts. These scripts allow users to call selected methods and to access and manipulate data in a document. This works ...
3
votes
1answer
90 views
What is the correct way to publish a runtime? Should it be a singleton?
I have a compiler for a programming language that targets JavaScript. That language needs some global functions such as: alloc, memcpy, write and so on. My question is: where should I position those ...
7
votes
1answer
196 views
Message Queue for RTOS for microcontrollers
I'm currently writing an RTOS for microcontrollers. The whole thing is written in C++11 - if anyone is interested, and the link to the repository is at the bottom.
Currently I'm writing a class that ...
2
votes
2answers
44 views
Internal api development and committing procedure
I am now on the job of extending and refactoring a set of APIs and core data structures that most of the other components depend on. The team is small (5 people ).
A manager told me that before ...
2
votes
1answer
121 views
Should a web app for a service access its data via its own API or directly?
I'm building a service that will consist of mobile and desktop apps, which will require me to build my own RESTful web API to easily keep the data for the service in sync. I am also building a web ...
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votes
4answers
96 views
What exactly is the meaning of “node” in Document Object Model (DOM)?
I've searched for the definition of a "node" in a programming language and I am still finding it hard to understand.
Could anyone advice me in simple, layman's terms:
What is a node?
1
vote
2answers
51 views
Lock data in DB while external API call is pending?
I have an interesting situation, and I am looking for the best way to solve it. My app runs like this:
1) The user gets a Promotion Pin from Some Company, and I have a db table with these pins also. ...
0
votes
0answers
38 views
Multiple API Calls on Web Server
I am trying to build a Tumblr Site that makes API calls to Social Network sites and return data and render on the Tumblr Site. And the thing is Tumblr doesn't allow PHP on their HTML Editor. So my ...
