One of the best things that docker has done for the development world is make the "Time To 200" pretty short. We essentially just need to run `docker-compose up -d --build` and you can run a huge array of applications. You just go to http://fontend.localhost and get routed to the right container. It's magic.
What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
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Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you could give a short lived highly limited API key out for testing to allow the potential user to test the API for their needs before bothering to make an account and providing their personal information.
Also, a way to register via that temporary api access
KeepFlying's idea together with this point is a great suggestion, I'm going to see if I can prototype something along these lines.
Basically hand out tons of short lived credentials right from a widget on the main landing page, together with each API response giving a link to a signup form that can convert the key into a fully fledged account.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
But you could give a short lived highly limited API key out for testing to allow the potential user to test the API for their needs before bothering to make an account and providing their personal information.
How do you prevent someone from automating repeated "get new temp key"?
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Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#64Is there anyone that does API management as a service?
Something that would consolidate account, tokens, billing, tracking, firewalling etc of an API?
Somewhere where one could plug their api and monetize it easily?
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm not sure how I could further improve the current flow Remove 1 and 2.
You need to assign the API key to an email both for contacting and also a way to limit abuse.
Abuse of free APIs is a big issue, I've definitely experienced it a lot and see other API developers in this thread mentioning it.
With my experience though I found that trying to limit signups to prevent abuse caused so much friction for legitimate users that I actually decide to change my strategy to the following:
1. Allow essentially unrestricted access to the free account on a separate domain/hosting so that people don't feel the need to churn through accounts with bots etc. and the load can be separated out. Hence this page: https://www.exchangerate-api.com/docs/free My signup form actually automatically redirects some classes of disposable email, bot signup etc. to this page!
2. Make sure that anything particularly resource intensive or that's a good reason to sign up for my service is only accessible after payment. I would love to give out more functionality for free but unfortunately the people that take advantage mean it's just not economically possible.
So for me the main reason to get an email address is 1.) so that users can have a better experience - get usage notifications, updates about the API that might affect them, share the account with a colleague etc.
And 2.) so that business users can be satisfied. Pretty much anyone running a company that is relying on an API will want to have an account, see how the upgrade process would work if they needed it etc. even if they're only starting off with a free plan.
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem with having your API key in the URL is that they'll likely be logged all over the place when they're meant to be secret. You probably have the keys being leaked in logs, error reports, metrics, etc.
True and if this API handled user data or anything substantially private that would be a HUGE deal and super dangerous. But it seems like in this case it's mostly a rate limiting and identification exercise and not a secure protection of user data so the impact of exposure is substantially lower. So it does seem reasonable here. Though I hope that OP has documented all over the place "do as I say not as I do" so peop…
dmlittle's concern is a valid one and for most other types of API I would definitely agree it's not the right approach.
I still think it's reasonable for my use case but perhaps I should add another auth scheme as an optional alternative for the user who is concerned about their key potentially being caught in logs.
Your point about the documentation is also a good one - I should probably add a specific page just about the authentication approach. Added to the to-do list! Thanks.
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#67Is there anyone that does API management as a service? Something that would consolidate account, tokens, billing, tracking, firewalling etc of an API? Somewhere where one could plug their api and monetize it easily?
RapidAPI. You can consume multiple API's from one account and as a developer it's a good way to monetize an API if there isn't too much competition in your niche. Not sure what you mean by firewalling but RapidAPI does authenticate their requests to your endpoint so as a developer you can do access control in this way.
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#68“Time to 200”? Why not “Zero to 200”? Feels closer to the car simile
Lots of people don't drive cars. I figured most programmers would be familiar with "Time To Live" (TTL).
For a non-HTTP specific phrase representing the same concept, I've tended toward "Time to first dopamine hit". :)
That feeling of not being sure if a tool/API/service/SDK/library/hardware is going to work for your purposes and then you get that first example/test/demo running and get your first response...
"Ok, yep, this is good! Now is it gonna let me change this small thing so I can..."
And the positive feedback loop has begun!
It's definitely a metric that impacts developer adoption & is IMO something that needs to be routinely tracked in order to reduce the time taken to get started & catch any unexpected regressions.
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#69I believe "time to 200" is a reference to "time to triangle," which Playstation architect Mark Cerny and others have used to describe the amount of time it takes to get a game engine up and running on a new console to the point where it can render its first triangle [1].
You can see him talking about time to triangle on various Playstation consoles here [2] (and if you have the time, it's definitely worth watching the entire talk).
[1] https://www.engadget.com/2013-06-28-cerny-ps4s-time-to-trian...
Re: What’s your API’s “Time To 200”?
#70Is there anyone that does API management as a service? Something that would consolidate account, tokens, billing, tracking, firewalling etc of an API? Somewhere where one could plug their api and monetize it easily?
This sounds like the services API gateway provides.
I imagine all the cloud platforms have similar products