Social dev camp_2011

Craig Ulliott likes building things

About me

About me• Needs to know how everything works

About me• Needs to know how everything works• Likes things that scale

About me• Needs to know how everything works• Likes things that scale• Think’s almost everything is inefﬁcient

About me• Needs to know how everything works• Likes things that scale• Think’s almost everything is inefﬁcient• Hates people

About me• Needs to know how everything works• Likes things that scale• Think’s almost everything is inefﬁcient• Hates people • Just kidding

About me• Needs to know how everything works• Likes things that scale• Think’s almost everything is inefﬁcient• Hates people • Just kidding • But people are the cause of all the worlds inefﬁciencies

About me• Needs to know how everything works• Likes things that scale• Think’s almost everything is inefﬁcient• Hates people • Just kidding • But people are the cause of all the worlds inefﬁcienciesWhat I do and have done:

Mistakes I’ve Made

Mistakes I’ve MadeLessons I’ve Learned.

Minimum Viable Product

Minimum Viable Product• Short sprints (release code regularly)

Minimum Viable Product• Short sprints (release code regularly)• Spend an hour thinking about why you’re building something, before you spend a week thinking about how.

Minimum Viable Product• Short sprints (release code regularly)• Spend an hour thinking about why you’re building something, before you spend a week thinking about how.• Your developing a business not a website

Surround yourself with business people

Surround yourself with business people• If you have a good idea, a strong technical co- founder and a business co-founder - you will get money / incubated / successful

Surround yourself with business people• If you have a good idea, a strong technical co- founder and a business co-founder - you will get money / incubated / successful• I get asked every 3 days if I know any developers - why are you guys not meeting each other!

Bootstrap if you can

Bootstrap if you can• BUSINESSES that work when they are small are easier to scale

Bootstrap if you can• BUSINESSES that work when they are small are easier to scale• The ﬁrst step to becoming an Entrepreneur is not quitting your job

Bootstrap if you can• BUSINESSES that work when they are small are easier to scale• The ﬁrst step to becoming an Entrepreneur is not quitting your job• You wont be pragmatic if your worried about rent / children / debt / x / y / z

Bootstrap if you can• BUSINESSES that work when they are small are easier to scale• The ﬁrst step to becoming an Entrepreneur is not quitting your job• You wont be pragmatic if your worried about rent / children / debt / x / y / z• Its also a great lesson in ﬁnances

Don’t be afraid to share your idea• “But someone might steal it.”• The hardest thing you will do is going to be getting someone genuinely interested in your idea.• People that could actually execute your idea are too busy with their own ideas.• It’s a lot cheaper for someone to take a bet (put all the risk) on you, than try and do it themselves.

Fail quickly and fail often

Fail quickly and fail oftenone in seven businesses make it...

Fail quickly and fail oftenone in seven businesses make it... ...so start seven businesses!

WIB APIs in 2009

Some problem’s• WIB was completely dependent on lots of different social networks • They break and change stuff • Our code becomes complicated (entropy)• WIB had a small team • And lots of stuff to do• WIB had a lot of members • half a billion db rows & 7000+ queries a second

What is abstractiona web application is like an onion

The Solution: “Network Abstraction Layer”• Wrapped Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Hi5, Friendster and Orkut• Normalized the I/O• Absorbed changes where they happen• Handled breakages• Data sharing across the whole network - Facebook user can see a MySpace user

and it’s really extensible• We can add functionality and data without breaking the other networks• We can add other networks very easily

It’s also nice and scalable (for a team)• An API has a deﬁned protocol, so developers on our team could work side by side on the different networks.• As long as I/O stays the same, they can work independently

And it scales well technically• Dividing an application into layers makes it much easier to scale.• Mainly because the independent layers can be scaled (or re-written) independently, without breaking other components.

WIB APIs in 2011

WIB Today Where I’ve Been . com The website does not connect directly to the database Facebook Twitter WIB oAuth 2 REST APIFoursquareAnd others... Database Database Database

Advantages of a single API• Saves Time (money) and it’s Extensible (future proof)• Teams can work on their own platforms • Website, iPhone, Android, Facebook App et.al.• Federate out content (or build developer network)

How to build an API(an opinionated approach)

how to build stuff in general

how to build stuff in general• Developers cost

how to build stuff in general• Developers cost• Servers cost

Use Ruby on Rails

Use Ruby on Rails• It allows you to build reliable, powerful, readable code

Use Ruby on Rails• It allows you to build reliable, powerful, readable code• With RoR you can build a business in a week and host it for free

Use Ruby on Rails• It allows you to build reliable, powerful, readable code• With RoR you can build a business in a week and host it for free Even monkeys use tools!

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup• RESTful out of the box

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup• RESTful out of the box• Normalized data

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup• RESTful out of the box• Normalized data • Encourages powerful abstraction

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup• RESTful out of the box• Normalized data • Encourages powerful abstraction• It’s easy and quick to develop

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup• RESTful out of the box• Normalized data • Encourages powerful abstraction• It’s easy and quick to develop• Its easy to write tests

Why Ruby on Rails is good for an API Especially if you’re a startup• RESTful out of the box• Normalized data • Encourages powerful abstraction• It’s easy and quick to develop• Its easy to write tests• Scales horizontally (until you’ve already “made it”) - the bottleneck will be your DB

RESTful web service• REST is how the web already works (makes it a pretty well known standard)• URL’s are self explanatory (easy to work with)• Closely matches the underlying data/objects • Makes it easy to build in a DRY way • Developers can get started very quickly

HTTP methods• POST : Create something new• GET : Retrieve something that already exists• PUT : Update something that already exists• DELETE : Remove something that already exists

Authorization and Authentication• Authentication • Who is this• Authorization • Can the Authenticated entity access this resource

oAuth1 vs oAuth2• oAuth 2 is slightly less secure• But it makes everyone’s lives SO much easier• Build a “trusted” clients paradigm for internal use - login, register, reset password etc

HTTP Request Authentication Web server Framework AuthenticationIt makes things really easy for developers Authorizationlots of libraries and examples exist API Controller

Access Tokens• Different tokens for user+client and client• Store useful info in them, allows you to calculate on the ﬂy instead of store in the db c1234-g7rCEVB867rbe4B-1234567

Access Tokens• Different tokens for user+client and client• Store useful info in them, allows you to calculate on the ﬂy instead of store in the db c1234-g7rCEVB867rbe4B-1234567 client_id = 12345

Access Tokens• Different tokens for user+client and client• Store useful info in them, allows you to calculate on the ﬂy instead of store in the db c1234-g7rCEVB867rbe4B-1234567 user_id = 1234576

Access Tokens• Different tokens for user+client and client• Store useful info in them, allows you to calculate on the ﬂy instead of store in the db c1234-g7rCEVB867rbe4B-1234567 hash(client_secret+user_id)

Access Tokens• Different tokens for user+client and client• Store useful info in them, allows you to calculate on the ﬂy instead of store in the db c1234-g7rCEVB867rbe4B-1234567

SSLiPhone WiFi laptop running squid internet • Require it, otherwise developers will expose all sort of stuff (like keys) • Important if you want to be taken seriously by developer community

SSLiPhone WiFi laptop running squid internet looking at all the trafﬁc is easy • Require it, otherwise developers will expose all sort of stuff (like keys) • Important if you want to be taken seriously by developer community

Standardized Errors• Assume success=true• Always send back errors in the same way, so client libraries can be smart { "error": { "type": "ObjectException", "message": "Object does not exist" } }

Limit how much data gets send back• Mobile developers care a lot about this• allow customizations: ﬁelds=name,gender

DRY Deﬁnitions

HTTP Request LoggingErrors: Web server • GetExceptional $20 a month (whats your time worth?)Performance: Framework • New RelicAPI Requests • Something simple near the top of your stack Logging (remember, storage is cheap) API Controller

GetExceptional

GetExceptional - Backtraces

New Relic

Roll your own

JSON• It’s smaller than XML• Developers write bad xml parsers, that rely on the order of the XML nodes• Facebook use it, and they set the standard - you want your API to be sexy don’t you?

Returning Data• Standarized - objects - arrays of objects - nested objects

Standardize object output

DRY Documentation never goes out of date• Build it off the - models - connections - methods

Testing• Write tests on your API • Even if you hate tests • It’s easy • You can generate most of them just like the documentation

Tie it all together• A good API is a series of simple layers• Keep it DRY • Use the data structure for more dynamic code• Standards are your friend• There are plenty of examples out there - Facebook, Foursquare, Twitter etc

Thanks• Hope this was useful

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Social dev camp_2011

by Craig Ulliott on Aug 28, 2011

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Social dev camp_2011 Presentation Transcript