We've teamed up with James Higginbotham of LaunchAny and Keith Casey of Casey Software to bring you their hand-curated weekly newsletter for API developers. You can subscribe to the API Developer Weekly email newsletter here.
Also, be sure to check out James's and Keith's new book A Practical Approach to API Design on Leanpub. On to the links!
Hot Topics
A survival guide on developer evangelism
"So how do you grow a community of developers to use your tools in new and exciting ways? It’s a tough gig. Developers are a fickle bunch, and just about everyone covets their attention. Here are some best practices learned from helping many of the best organizations in the world to grow their developer community."
The perspective that matters for every API
A transcript of a recent APIDays presentation on how to look at APIs from the perspective of the client.
APIs.json API Property Types
A discussion of the feedback received for the APIs.json project, some thoughts around the API property types, and some proposed extensions that may appear in the next version.
What should the API be to honk the horn of a Tesla model S?
A lively Reddit discussion that examines the unofficial Tesla model S JSON API.
The Business of APIs
Why Apple Dropped Yahoo For Its Weather App In iOS 8
Yahoo has learned that if you want to provide an API with data available elsewhere, you have to add additional value.
Time To Leave Your Keys At Home Or Better Yet Trash Them Forever
"Say goodbye to digital passwords and physical keys. It all started with a phone."
The Internet of Things Meets Hydroponics: How To Grow a Better Vegetable
"About 60 miles from the site of the deadly 2011 nuclear disaster in Fukushima prefecture, inside a former silicon chip manufacturing facility owned by the Japanese computer company Fujitsu, a small team of highly trained engineers are working on one of the company’s hottest new products."
The Internet Of Things Will Need Millions Of Developers By 2020
"While today there are just 300,000 developers contributing to the IoT, a new report from VisionMobile projects a whopping 4.5 million developers by 2020, reflecting a 57% compound annual growth rate and a massive market opportunity."
Roundup of 20 API Service Providers in 2012
Well known providers and new entrants to the API service providers list, bringing the total from 11 to 20 in just six months.
API Development
What’s a Webhook?
"A webhook is an API concept that’s growing in popularity. As more and more of what we do on the web can be described by events, webhooks are becoming even more applicable. They’re incredibly useful and a resource-light way to implement event reactions."
How to Test Code that Uses HTTP APIs using Node.js, Mocha, and Nock
A look at how to test APIs from Node using Mocha and Nock, reducing the need for external databases or APIs and speeding up test execution.
Deploy An API From A Google Spreadsheet Using APISpark
"Restlet has taken their open source REST framework, launched it as a service, and opened up the possibility for anyone to deploy an API, from an existing Google Spreadsheet—no coding necessary."
Tessel Review & Salesforce REST API Example
A look at the Tessel, new hardware that is programmed using Javascript, and how it was combined with the Salesforce Chatter API to share captured pictures.
Cloud Watch (from Cloud Developer Weekly Newsletter)
CoreOS Linux does away with the upgrade cycle
"Hoping to simplify life for system administrators, CoreOS has launched a commercial Linux distribution that continually updates itself, eliminating the need to perform major upgrades."
The CoreOS revolution continues as the startup takes $8M
A look at the history of CoreOS, their recent round of funding, and the plans they have for using the new funds to accelerate growth.
Benchmarking SQS
A detailed look at Amazon's SQS queue-as-a-service, the limitations of SQS, and how to increase performance of the service.
Configuration Management Tools in the Real World
"Configuration management tools are a hot topic on the DevOps community and IT organizations in general. InfoQ reached out to users of each of the major tools (Ansible, CFEngine, Chef, Puppet and SaltStack) to ask them about their experiences."
3scale Deploys API Management Platform On Heroku
API management platforms are now in a race to deploy their offerings to the public cloud and 3scale is already off to a fast start with AWS and Heroku.
How to Bring DevOps to your Enterprise with PaaS
Developers want the freedom to innovate. Operations is expected to control costs, to ensure compliance, to safeguard against security threats, and to guarantee service uptime. PaaS may just be the answer.
Gene Kim and Red Hat IT Part 3: A DevOps Implementation Strategy
Gene Kim, award-winning CTO and co-author of “The Phoenix Project,” recently sat down with Red Hat IT’s Inception team to discuss their DevOps mission. Here are the highlights from the conversation.
Want to share something?
As always, if you want to chat, share a link, or make a suggestion, feel free to drop us a quick note using Twitter (@launchany and @caseysoftware) or by emailing us at: james@launchany.com.