In my quest for knowledge on how to design an API, I found some very useful resources and tools. There is much to discuss and read on this topic, and on this post I recommend a few starting points. I’ve worked with (consumed) quite a few API services. Some are a pleasure to work with, but others are not. One particular API I worked with broke all the rules mentioned in the Joshua’s video below. It’s actually quite funny, now, but it was a pain to figure it out and communicate with them. So, if you are thinking about creating an API service, especially an open API service, please, please follow the design considerations from the resources mentioned below or other similar experienced parties. Read More…
These two sets of slides were presented at the Erlang Workshop in Saskatoon on September 17, 2009. See brochure.
The first set goes over the Erlang data storage modules ETS, DETS, and Mnesia. These modules are part of the Erlang library and are extremely powerful and flexible for storing data. The second set briefly outlines Mochiweb and Webmachine. Mochiweb can be used on its own as a lightweight HTTP server. Webmachine is built on top of Mochiweb providing a Web service gateway interface, ideal for building an API server. Read More…