Successful developers

Kirsten Jones, Technical Leader, Cisco Systems @synedra http://www.princesspolymath.com

 API Developers  Application Developers  Architects / Designers Focus: Successful Developers

 Good Documentation Common Pain Points HTTP Sniffing Understanding Error Codes Debugging Strategies

 What can I do? Walk-throughs and tutorials Lots of working code Small chunks with frequent successes Example applications Examples:  LinkedIn Javascript Tutorials  LinkedIn Getting Started

 Lack of understanding of HTTP structure Libraries “masking” responses Error code confusion Authentication

 Many developers don’t understand HTTP basics Libraries allow them to interact with the API but not understand issues REST feels like a “black box”

 Clear and complete tutorials, with and without libraries Pointers to HTTP basics  My OSCON presentation has good info Developer tools demonstrating successful calls (OAuth Test Console, IODocs)

 3rd Party (or company-supported) libraries are great but… Frequently error codes or other responses are masked Can get out of sync Supporting the API is different from supporting a library

 HTTP status is very helpful  50x: we screwed up.  40x: you screwed up.  30x: ask that dude over there.  20x: cool. Consistency within the API is critical Useful error messages for broad errors (4xx errors) Document, explain, demonstrate!

 Teach your developers to be successful Watch the traffic with a sniffer All requests should include headers, body, exact URL A great bug report:  I did X  I expected Y to happen  To my dismay, Z happened instead

 Use existing, tested libraries Code defensively Servers aren’t that smart  In most cases a working example will help  Lots of code samples, well documented  Use case based

 Macintosh: HTTPScoop http://tuffcode.com/ Macintosh: Charles (supports SSL) http://www.charlesproxy.com/ Windows: Fiddler http://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/ Unix (or Mac): Wireshark (X11) http://www.wireshark.org/

 401 authentication errors (signatures, tokens) 403 authorization errors (throttles, permissions) 400 errors – parameters, headers Content-type errors

 Pain points HTTP Sniffers Good questions

http://eventifier.co	16
https://twitter.com	11
https://si0.twimg.com	2

Successful developers

by Kirsten Jones on Aug 03, 2012

Accessibility

Categories

Upload Details

Usage Rights

3 Embeds 29

Statistics

Successful developers Presentation Transcript