February 2023 Summaries

EasyTemplate is an advanced templating engine for Go that enhances the standard text/template package by integrating JavaScript and TypeScript capabilities, allowing for more complex logic during the templating process. Developed by Speakeasy, it aims to facilitate the generation of SDKs from API specifications by enabling templates to interact with one another dynamically. The tool supports JavaScript snippets, ES5 through goja, and underscore.js, making it versatile for various templating needs. EasyTemplate allows developers to decouple templating from the core Go binary, enabling runtime plugin-like template management without altering the original codebase, and is designed to leverage the ubiquity and simplicity of JavaScript and TypeScript, as well as their vast ecosystems.

In an effort to streamline SDK creation, a team is developing a self-serve SDK creation pipeline that allows users to generate production-ready SDKs through a simple UI process, integrating seamlessly with CI/CD to maintain synchronization with specifications. The platform enables users to upload their OpenAPI specifications, choose target languages, optionally add publishing details, and create SDKs with minimal effort, demonstrated in a Python SDK for the OpenAI API. Currently in its alpha stage, the team is seeking user feedback and offering testing slots for those interested in early access. Enhancements include the ability to publish Java SDKs to Maven and improved test coverage with language-specific test suites to ensure the reliability of the SDKs.

Speakeasy has announced the availability of PHP SDK creation, highlighting PHP's widespread use in around 80% of websites, particularly in e-commerce and finance sectors. The new PHP SDKs are designed to be idiomatic and type-safe, incorporating features like type hints, doc strings, JMS/serializer for JSON handling, and Guzzle as the default HTTP client, although users can substitute this with a custom client if desired. Speakeasy's PHP SDKs are accessible via the Speakeasy CLI, allowing developers to easily generate SDKs for PHP users, as demonstrated through an example involving a method to add a pet in the canonical Petstore API.

The Speakeasy API platform is enhancing its functionality by introducing Speakeasy Plugins in Alpha, allowing users to define custom JavaScript functions using WebAssembly to process API request and response data. This feature empowers users to extend the platform's capabilities for specific use cases, such as custom field validation, derived field creation, or user onboarding tracking, with the possibility of these plugins being hosted on GitHub and potentially accessible to end users in the future. Additionally, improvements have been made to the platform's CLI, addressing authentication issues on Safari and Brave browsers by adopting a universally compatible method and implementing a smarter cleanup process that efficiently manages the files generated during SDK builds.