I've Got a Key to Your API, Now What? (Joint PBS and NPR API Presentation Give at IMA Conference March 2012)

I’ve got a key to your API, now what?!?•Presented by:•Thomas Crenshaw – PBS (@justhomas)•Javaun Moradi – NPR (@javaun)

Who are these guys• Combined 30 years technical experience• Both straddle the line between technically focused and experience focused• Both work for 3 letter companies and won’t have to kill you for telling you that (inside the beltway joke)• Fun fact: both are mountain bikers

Who are you? ( Who who who who )• Just Radio?• Just TV?• Joint licensee?• Digital folks?• Broadcast?• Developers (the software kind)?

Who we think you are• Some development experience in some development language (python, ruby, javascript)• Desire to extend your site/app/presence with additional content• May or may not be a joint licensee• Know that APIs rule the 2.0 world• May or may not know that APIs are actually web services

Now that introductions are out of the way let’s talk about APIs

We are going to go through this part of the presentation “Vin Diesel” style....

think of this as API speed dating 10

Application Programming Interface (API)• A flexible toolset. Not a platform, a file format, or a type of content.• Reuse your own technology, or• Use someone else’s without building it yourself.• Skilled developers program new API applications, but everyone can use those new creations.

Where did NPR begin?

Create Once, Publish Everywhere (COPE) • A central content repository that feeds all NPR platforms, stations, and partners NPR.org Mobile NPR API Story Pieces: headline, text, photos, audio, video Email Story Attributes: Newsletters Date, byline, topic, program, series, artistPartner Apps

Vision: “Let a thousand flowers bloom…”

Reality: NPR + Stations + Partners

Rise of Mobile AppsPRX Brad Fluebacher’s basement NPR

Stations API

APIs you didn’t know we had• Transcripts ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST: From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. Im Robert• User & Playlist Siegel. MELISSA BLOCK, HOST: And Im Melissa Block. Were marking the 50th anniversary of a childrens classic thats still devoured and puzzled over in reading nooks and classrooms. KEVIN THOMPSON: So we got Mrs. Whatsit, what about the 2nd character that we met? UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: Mrs. Who. THOMPSON: Mrs. Who, OK. What did we learn about Mrs. Who? UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #1: That her glasses are thick. THOMPSON: Yes, she has thick glasses. What kind of... UNIDENTIFIED CHILD #2: She has spectacles. THOMPSON: They call them spectacles, very good. What else is...

NPR Now…

NPR Mobile Today

Station & Show Apps!

Experiments

NPR Doubled Page Views NPR Music NPR Facebook Integration iPhone app iPad app Relaunched NPR mobile siteAPI launched in 2008 Player 2.0 NPR News Android app NPR News NPR Music Homepage NPR Blogs iPhone app Remix Improvements Made API Friendly Story Page Improvements

Stations Doubling Traffic!

NPR API stuff in progress

Plugging Asset Gaps <externalAsset id="141487365" type="YouTube"> <url>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA</url> <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws6AAhTw7RA%3C/url%3E> <oEmbed>http://www.youtube.com/oembed?url=http %3A//www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DWs6AAhTw7RA </oEmbed> <externalId>Ws6AAhTw7RA</externalId> <credit/> <parameters/> <caption/> </externalAsset>

Station Ingest:150 by the end of 2012!

API-Centered Development• Rule 1: Everything is an API• Rule 2: Be RESTful• Rule 3: Drink Your Own...

Streams & Genres APIsGET:/genres/10003/streams/

Artemis Library APIGET/stories/?names={"or":[{"name":"Newt%20Gingrich","role":"4"},{"name":"Newt%20Gingrich","role":"1"}]}

NPR what’s next? 47

Station Data Project (BUS)• Schedule information• Bridge existing information, including: – Station localization – Streams directories• Lots of bad puns

Stream Validation

Update Our Old Documentation

Better Documentation and Support

The API in the beginning…

Ingest is getting complicated

Where we’re headed

An API for the System• Independent of any one CMS or data structure• More flexibility• Versioning• Rights/permissions

Trends

JSON APIs XML JSON<response> { <status> response: { <version>4.2</version> status: { <code>0</code> version: 4.2, <message>Success</message> code: 0, </status> message: Success <songs> }, <song> songs: [ <artist_id>ARH6W4X1187B99274F</artist_id> { <id>SOWKEUN12AF72AB837</id> artist_id: ARH6W4X1187B99274F, <artist_name>Radiohead</artist_name> id: SOWKEUN12AF72AB837, <title>Climbing Up The Walls</title> artist_name: Radiohead, </song> title: Climbing Up The Walls <song> }, <artist_id>ARH6W4X1187B99274F</artist_id> { <id>SOXZVWD1316771449E</id> artist_id: ARH6W4X1187B99274F, <artist_name>Radiohead</artist_name> id: SOXZVWD1316771449E, <title>Fake Plastic Trees</title> artist_name: Radiohead, </song> title: Fake Plastic Trees <song> }, <artist_id>ARH6W4X1187B99274F</artist_id> { <id>SOMLGKF12AB017DF3C</id> artist_id: ARH6W4X1187B99274F, <artist_name>Radiohead</artist_name> id: SOMLGKF12AB017DF3C, <title>Vegetable (Live)</title> artist_name: Radiohead, </song> title: Vegetable (Live) </songs> }</response> ] } }

Smaller, Simpler APIs GET/genres

CMS Convergence• Harder to go it alone• A few CMS/frameworks will dominate• Let’s share modules! Don’t reinvent the wheel• http://drupal.org/project/npr

Technology: Shiny new things!

We need local, segmented audio!

An ecosystem for sharing

NPR is hiring!http://www.npr.org/about/careers/Digital Media (Washington, D.C.)•Programmer III•News Apps Editor•Quality Assurance Engineer•Software Developer•Audio-Video Production Supervisor•Product Manager, Connected Cars•Lead User Experience ArchitectDigital Services (Boston)•Digital News Specialist•Project Coordinator•Programmer III•Web Application Developer IV•Client Services Manager•Client Services Associate

Hey what about PBS...we have APIs too...

TV SchedulesI couldn’t resist the image of an Imperial Walker painted like the Mystery Machine!although it really doesn’t have much to do with the TVSS API!Very little knowledge passed down through the PBS Interactive group aboutthe origins of the TVSS API(see “mystery” wrapping large cumbersome object....you get it now right?) 21

It works....• Although not without blemishes, it does work• Pass parameters into TVSS API• API returns TV schedule data back• Documentation greatly improved recently by WETA’s Jess Snyder• Built for single purpose, extended overtime to do handle other tasks that 22

WPT Examplehttp://wptschedule.org/schedulenow.php 23

PBS Tune-in iOS App 24

COVE API• Request video object• Get video object• Pretty simple at its core• Manual key management at PBS• Public key available for POC 58

WordPress PluginWNET built it and is using it in production code is public on GitHub 59

Other APIs 61

Image Transformation Service (ITS)On-the-fly image resizing using URL decoratorshttp://image.pbs.org/ramp/programs/logos/NOVA_mezz_16x9.pnghttp://image.pbs.org/ramp/programs/logos/NOVA_mezz_16x9.png.resize.103x58.png

Universal User Authentication (UUA) 63

Hey PBS ... what are you working on now?

Localization 65

Simplify the obviousPassed in parameters: ZIP, IP or CoordinatesReturn: Call signFilter and rank as necessary withadditional parameters 66

Document from the beginning, not as an afterthought 67

TV Schedules Rethunk 68

~300 x 24 x 21 x 3 x 4 = ~1.8 million records(Actually closer to 2.629492 million records in PBS TV Schedules grid of information but who’s counting) 44

Not the best user experience 70

assume the role of a viewer 71

Build a robust API that fits the viewers needs and the user experiences will follow 72

MashupCOVE API + TVSSReloaded = EPG Nirvana 73

One ID to rule them all 74

Ask the questionwhere can I watch a PBS program? Yesterday 75

Today 76

Now that you know what we are doing... what can we do for you while we are doing what we are doing? open discussion begins..... now 77

API Reference• NPR • PBS – NPR API – TV Schedules – Transcripts – COVE – User – ITS – Playlist – UUA – Stations – Localization – Streams & Genres – TVSS Rethunk – Artemis – PBSGUIDPROJECT 78

PBS URLs• http://open.pbs.org - open PBS• http://answers.open.pbs.org - Q&A site• https://github.com/pbs - PBS github site• http://to.pbs.org/docs-api-cove• http://to.pbs.org/docs-api-tvss• http://to.pbs.org/docs-api-its• http://to.pbs.org/docs-api-uua 79

Questions?Tom Crenshawtwcrenshaw@pbs.org@justhomashttp://open.pbs.org/Javaun Moradijmoradi@npr.org@javaun 64

I've Got a Key to Your API, Now What? (Joint PBS and NPR API Presentation Give at IMA Conference March 2012)

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I’ve Got a Key to Your API, Now What? (Joint PBS and NPR API Presentation Give at IMA Conference March 2012) Presentation Transcript