Powering Webflow Apps: How we built Designer APIs - Part 2

In August 2023, Webflow introduced its first Designer APIs, allowing developers to create powerful applications to enhance the Webflow Designer's capabilities. Following the initial release, the APIs were re-architected to improve performance, transitioning from V1 to V2, which involved immediate communication with internal application logic, unlike the previous iteration. However, V2 initially faced performance issues during bulk operations, as each API call was processed individually, unlike the batched requests in V1. To address this, Webflow optimized various aspects, such as reducing unnecessary iterations in logic execution and introducing the element builder API, which mirrored V1's efficient in-memory element tree building. Additionally, the launch of APIs like page.setMetadata and the use of JavaScript's Promise.all for concurrent API calls significantly improved execution times. Webflow plans to continue enhancing these APIs by monitoring performance and developing new functionalities, aiming to provide a seamless experience for developers and users alike.