API Development
Top Principles of API Design: Build Robust, Scalable, and Efficient APIs
When you are first hacking together a product, API design means nothing more than slapping together a few endpoints that get the job done. You're focused on functionality, not elegance. Your API might be an assortment of methods that directly map to database operations or business logic, with little thought given to consistency, scalability, or developer experience.
This approach, while quick and dirty, often leads to technical debt and headaches down the road. As your product grows and evolves, you'll likely find yourself wrestling with inconsistent naming conventions, poorly structured data responses, and API endpoints that don't quite fit the needs of your expanding user base.
September 26, 2024 | 19 min read
API Development
Organizations, companies, and developers are constantly seeking ways to streamline processes, reduce costs, and improve scalability. One technological approach that has gained significant traction in recent years is serverless architecture. Despite its name, serverless architecture does not mean the absence of servers. Instead, it refers to a model where server management is handled by third-party services, allowing developers to focus solely on writing code and implementing features.
This comprehensive guide will dig into serverless architecture, its benefits, and how it can revolutionize software development and deployment processes.
What is Serverless Architecture?
September 24, 2024 | 14 min read
Local Development, API Development
When building integrations with 3rd party applications such as Stripe, PayPal, or GitHub managing webhook handling can be tricky. Webhook testing becomes challenging because it relies on the third-party app to send a request to your API, - and in development your server is usually running at localhost.
In this guide, I’ll show you how to use Blackbird API development tool to simplify webhook testing by generating a public URL for development and debugging webhook requests.
Example: GitHub Commit Tracker
September 23, 2024 | 5 min read
Article
APIs are the foundation of the modern web. With a single URL and a few kilobytes of payload, you can access extremely powerful services and knit them together into a billion-dollar product.
But because of their ease of use and power, APIs are also open to extreme abuse and overuse. High volumes of requests can overwhelm servers, degrade performance, and lead to service outages. Without systems to mitigate this, any reasonably popular API will quickly become overwhelmed or see its production costs go through the roof.
This is where API throttling comes into play. API throttling allows API producers to limit the requests to their service and manage resource consumption, ensuring optimal performance and availability for all users. Let’s go into the details.
September 20, 2024 | 19 min read
API Development
Mocking APIs in Blackbird is fast, and our newest enhancement lets you mock against popular API specs instantly, either in your browser or with the Blackbird CLI. Let’s review an example of when you would want to mock against a popular public API.
Adding an AI Chatbot using OpenAI API
Let’s say you are a developer working on the frontend code for a fintech company that specializes in helping you create healthy spending habits, including budgeting for your goals. You’ve been tasked with creating an interactive AI chatbot that helps users develop a budget based on their spending habits. To do this, you have decided to integrate OpenAI’s API into your product.
September 19, 2024 | 5 min read
API Development
Yes! And can it do so in 5 minutes? Also yes!
By chaining a few concepts together it’s possible to use AI to generate a fully functional and deployable API in no time. Here’s how:
Create an OAS file by chatting with an AI
September 18, 2024 | 3 min read
