apidays LIVE Helsinki & North: API Ecosystems - Connecting Physical and Digital March 16 & 17, 2022 How to Win Friends and Influence People with API First Arlemi Turpault, Senior Developer Advocate at Postman

1. All rights reserved by Postman Inc
How to Win Friends
and Influence People
with API First
Arlemi Turpault
Senior Developer Advocate

2. 17 million
@arlemi

3. @arlemi

4. What does API-first mean?
Benefits of becoming API-first
Practical tools and workflows
Industry examples
Key points
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5
Agenda
@arlemi

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6. What does API-First mean
to you?

7. @arlemi

8. Code-First Development
@arlemi
CORE
FUNCTIONALITY
API web app
admin app
mobile app
microservice
API

9. All of the code that was built for
the website then had to be
rebuilt in our API to be used by
our iOS and Android apps.
Stephanie Schirmer
Etsy
“
@arlemi

10. @arlemi

11. API-First Development
@arlemi
API web app
admin app
mobile app

12. consume
commit
Code-First
code
IDE
integration
development
environment
integrate
test
debug
document
ADE
API
development
environment
run tests
deploy
Source control
repository
@arlemi

13. Problems with a traditional code-first approach
● Bottlenecks delay contributors and consumers
● Rework late in the development cycle
● Building stuff no one wants
● End product is inadequately documented
● API is constrained by the data model and business logic
How not to make friends
@arlemi

14. commit
code gen
API-First
code
IDE
integration
development
environment
integrate
design
mock
write tests
ADE
API
development
environment
deploy
Source control
repository
run tests
@arlemi

15. Benefits of an API-first approach
● Earlier validation
● Decoupling dependencies
● Faster growth
● Freedom from constraints
How to make friends
@arlemi

16. A single team should not become a bottleneck nor
need to have expertise on every client application
to create optimized endpoints. Rapid innovation
through fast, decoupled development cycles across
a wide variety of device types and distributed
ownership and expertise across teams should be
enabled.
Ben Christensen
Netflix
“
@arlemi

17. @arlemi

18. API-First
schema
API-first
Defining and
designing APIs and
schema before
development
interface
API-first
Developing APIs
before developing
applications or
integrations
business
requirements
API-first
Defining business
requirements before
defining and
designing APIs
33%
39%
14%
@arlemi

19. @arlemi
Embracing API-First

20. API-First
schema
API-first
Defining and
designing APIs and
schema before
development
interface
API-first
Developing APIs
before developing
applications or
integrations
business
requirements
API-first
Defining business
requirements before
defining and
designing APIs
33%
39%
14%
@arlemi

21. What are tools and workflows
for becoming API-first?

22. Common API-first tools and workflows
● API specifications
● Mock servers
● Consumer-driven contract (CDC) testing
How do you transform a cluttered API
development workflow?
@arlemi

23. API
Specifications

24. API specifications
@arlemi

25. @arlemi

26. Most widely adopted schema types
August 2021
Findings
Swagger v1, WADL, and RAML have
minimal usage
OpenAPI v2 has the largest market
share, but is declining
OpenAPI v3 has the largest growth
rate YTD, more than accounting for
people transitioning from other
schema types
@arlemi

27. OpenAPI

28. Mock Servers

29. Generate mock servers from OpenAPI

30. Mock Servers
for prototyping new services
Generated from API specification
Based on paired requests and responses (examples)
for each endpoint
@arlemi
Prototype new services
Enables parallel development using the mock
endpoints

31. Consumer-Driven
Contract (CDC)
Testing

32. @arlemi

33. CDC testing
for ensuring providers fulfill consumer expectations
@arlemi
Provider issues specification
Provider proposes the terms of the contract in the
specification

34. CDC testing
for ensuring providers fulfill consumer expectations
Consumers write tests
Consumers test only the endpoints and properties
they consume
@arlemi
Provider issues specification
Provider proposes the terms of the contract in the
specification

35. CDC testing
for ensuring providers fulfill consumer expectations
Consumers write tests
Consumers test only the endpoints and properties
they consume
@arlemi
Provider issues specification
Provider proposes the terms of the contract in the
specification
Contract
Explicit agreement about how the API will be used
between provider and consumers

36. CDC testing
for ensuring providers fulfill consumer expectations
Consumers write tests
Consumers test only the endpoints and properties
they consume
@arlemi
Provider issues specification
Provider proposes the terms of the contract in the
specification
Contract
Explicit agreement about how the API will be used
between provider and consumers
Provider runs tests
Provider runs consumers’ tests as part of their
deployment pipeline

37. API-first workflow for Postman ENG
mock servers
Parallel Development
Generate mocks to
enable parallel
development
CDC testing
CI/CD
Ensure no breaking
changes for
microservices
specification
Blueprint
Blueprint collection
to propose a new
API
@arlemi

38. What are the key points for
becoming API-first?

39. Various meanings of API-First
● API-first development: when developing new functionality, the
functionality should first be exposed as an API in your organization
● API-first design: planning the functionality (specification)
○ What functionality will the API have?
○ What data will it expose?
○ What will the developer experience be like?
○ How will it scale?
○ How will we add new functionality in the future?
What does API-first mean to you?
@arlemi

40. Using an API-first approach can give you:
● Earlier validation
● Decoupling dependencies
● Faster growth
● Freedom from constraints
Benefits of an API-first approach
@arlemi

41. Is API-first for everyone?
@arlemi
Mobile
Desktop
CONSUMER
INFRASTRUCTURE
On-premise Cloud
Monolith Microservices
ARCHITECTURE

42. @arlemi

43. Kin Lane, Postman
It’s going to be hard.
@arlemi

44. @arlemi
https://api-first-world.com/

45. Thank you!

46. 2021 State of the API Report
API-first Software Development for Modern Organizations
Bringing law and order to APIs with OpenAPI Specifications
Using Mock Servers throughout the API Lifecycle
Design and Prototype an API in Postman - Webinar
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3
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Additional Resources
5
@arlemi