June 2020 Summaries

This blog discusses the benefits of using both SOAP and REST APIs for a service, particularly in enterprise environments. It highlights the importance of providing both options to cater to different customer needs. The author shares an example of how API Transformer can convert a REST API to a SOAP API by generating WSDL files from OpenAPI/Swagger formats. The article explains the conversion process step-by-step, including handling HTTP verbs, request and response parameters, and schema definitions. It also touches on the use of tools and frameworks for implementing SOAP services and provides guidance on deciding whether to keep the SOAP service independent from the existing REST service or not. Overall, the blog aims to provide clarity on the choice between REST and SOAP APIs and offers API Transformer as a tool for converting REST APIs to SOAP APIs.

Code samples play a crucial role in providing an outstanding developer experience for APIs, allowing developers to learn by experience and get started with the least amount of steps and minimal time. Code samples help put together API calls in languages of their choice, making it easier for developers to integrate with the API without having to write a single line of code. However, most auto-generated samples lack language structure, requiring developers to add in extra work to make them run, such as configuring environments, handling data types and validation, and error handling. To overcome this, developers need to use models and object-to-string mappers to handle these tasks. Language idiomatic code samples generated alongside an SDK provide a complete framework for modeling applications, including dependencies, referenced libraries, system libraries, I/O mechanisms, and class models, making it easier for developers to focus on business logic while taking care of API communication code. These samples are lean and can easily fit into applications with minimal communication code, providing a scalable solution for real-world use cases.

API documentation can be a tedious process for developers, who often find themselves jumping between the app and the API documentation to understand how each endpoint works. To address this issue, APIMatic aimed to create an interactive API documentation feature that allows developers to play around with endpoints while reading the API documentation, providing a clear understanding of what each endpoint does before diving into code. By adding a tab called "Console" with input fields and reflecting these fields to the code directly, APIMatic made its documentation interactive, enabling developers to test endpoints in real-time without having to leave their IDE. This feature was well-received by developers during usability testing, showcasing the potential for interactive API documentation to improve developer experience.