Overview of API Integration
Integrating with a single API can be tough, let alone multiple APIs. I see integration being about on-boarding, exploration, education, authentication, code samples, testing and sand-boxing of APIs--pretty much everything between the discovery of APIs and going into production.
The goal is to identify building blocks, tools, services and other knowledge that will help developers integrate APIs into their web, mobile and internet of things applications. API Evangelist as always been about the business of APIs from the API provider perspective, but now I'm looking to evolve it, and include the business of API consumption.
Some of the companies included in this research span other areas like API discovery or management, but they are also providing valuable tools and services that help ensure developers will be successful. Once I get, what I feel are the key areas of both deploying and consuming APIs up, I will work on the overlaps, and interoperability between these areas.
API integration tools and services are proving to be a very critical area to the space, one that will help stabilize the world of APIs and balance out much of the inconsistency that developers face when building apps that span multiple API providers or even depend on aggregate APis.
This area of API evangelist is brand new and will be evolving as I continue my research. If you have tools or approaches to development of apps using APIs, please let me know. I'd love to hear more about how you approach integration. As with all of my projects, this is a continuous work in progress, so stay tuned.
