Google Launches Real Time API and JavaScript Library

by on 03/19/2013

Google launched a Realtime API for the Google Drive Platform today. It is the API version of the same functionality available on Google Drive, that allows for you and other collaborators to type, edit, annote and chat with each other within a Google Doc. To use the Google Drive Realtime API you add the Google Realtime Javascript library, then you can give any local object on an HTML page realtime behavior. The JavaScript library and Realtime API handle network communication, storage, presence, conflict resolution and sync changes using what they call a CollaborativeString object. The Realtime API isn’t just for documents, it can be used for productivity apps, games, entertainment and much more. The only limitation is a developers imagination within their own applications. Google gives a quick start, documentation and other resources to get you going, and they provide a pretty cool realtime playground for building stuff with the API in a hands-on, interactive environment. There are other players in the realtime space already, like Firebase and Pusher. Google’s entry into the arena is a signal that there is developer demand for realtime tools and provides validation for the other startups.... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, Firebase, Google, Pusher, Real-Time

Startup API Pricing

by on 03/19/2013

I wrote about the web to API service Import. io earlier today, and before I close the Evernote for this story, I wanted to highlight something else I thought they did interesting, on their pricing page.   I thought they provide a very honest peak into how they are pricing their services.  First off, they admit that they are a young company, which is cool, but they also lay out some pretty interesting points around their business philosophy:: We are a free service. We will always provide a free-to-use tool We will introduce premium features. Some of these you may have to pay for We will always provide you with a tool to export your connectors We will let you know if we are going to change anything that may impact your usage of import. io We are currently in Developer Preview. Some things might not work as expected Free accounts may be volume-limited as we move from Developer Preview to production We will never spam you or share your details with any third parties All of these points are something I feel ALL startups should commit to as part of their services to their users. One thing I'd also like to see from startups, is some mention of their exit strategy.  What is the end goal?... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, Exit Strategy, Pricing

I Have An Idea, Lets Launch an Analytics Platform

by on 03/19/2013

During my monitoring for the API stack this last week, I noticed that both Parse and New Relic had launched mobile analytics platforms. I’ve been tracking on various API driven analytics platforms, and after seeing both Parse and New Relic launch their offerings, I thought, who else is doing this?... read more.

Tags: Kin Lane

APIs as Art

by on 03/19/2013

Audrey (@audreywatters) forwarded a very interesting series of tweets to me yesterday from software artist, writer, and educator Jer Thorp (@blprnt): Has anyone written about APIs as art objects? — blprnt (@blprnt) March 18, 2013 (We make APIs for almost every art project we build - in some ways the APIs themselves are the most interesting/poetic parts) — blprnt (@blprnt) March 18, 2013 It feels to me the API could become a medium for artists in the same way that the algorists embraced the algorithm in the 70s. — blprnt (@blprnt) March 18, 2013 The APIists. You heard it here first. — blprnt (@blprnt) March 18, 2013 The API's ability to bridge platforms/devices/languages is almost inherently interventionist. — blprnt (@blprnt) March 18, 2013 What a fascinating thought. It is so close to how I see APIs in my minds eye. A single API design can hold so much beauty, information, expression and emotion. Imagine if you hung the API design for each iteration of the Twitter API on a wall. There is so much to interpret. It expresses the vision of Twitter founders and employees, it is in direct response to a million developers and the needs of 500 million users around the globe.... read more.

Tags: API as Art, API Evangelist, Jer Thorp

Web Harvesting to API with Import.io

by on 03/19/2013

I had a demo of a new data extraction service today called Import. io. The service allows you to harvest or scrape data from websites and then output in machine readable formats like JSON. This is very similar to Needlebase, a popular scraping tool that was acquired and then shut down by Google early in 2012. Except I’d say Import. io represents a simpler, yet at the same time a more sophisticated approach to harvesting of web data and publishing than Needlebase. Extract Using Import. io you can target web pages, where the content resides that you wish to harvest, define the rows of data, label and associate them with columns in table you where the system will ultimately put your data, then extract the data complete with querying, filtering, pagination and other aspects of browsing the web you will need to get at all the data you desire. Connect After defining the data that will be extracted, and how it will be store you can stop and use the data as is, or you can setup a more ongoing, real-time connection with the data you are harvesting. Using Import. io connectors you pull the data regularly, identify when it changes, merge from multiple sources and remix data as needed. Put The Data To Work Using Import.... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, Harvest to API, Import.io, Scrape to API, ScrAPI, Web to API

Database to API With SlashDB

by on 03/18/2013

I would say the most common path to an API is from your company's database. This makes database to API connectors, tools and services a pretty valuable area of the API space. While there will always be high profile APIs dominating the tech blogosphere, most APIs will be launched quietly from small companies, by connecting them to various internal data sources. During API Strategy & Practice, I met a new API service provider, called SlashDB, that focuses on just delivering APIs from your database. Once installed on any web server, SlashDB connects your internal databases and constructs a REST/HTTP web service, easily making database content accessible by URLs for getting, updating, inserting and deleting in a secure way. SlashDB provides connectors for Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostGreSQL, IBM DB2 and Sybase--covering the top 5 databases you will find in the enterprise or small to medium businesses. I notice that SlashDB also has Microsoft Excel connectors. I will have to investigate this further and do another story on API deployment from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets.... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, IBM DB2, MySQL, Oracle, PostGreSQL, SQL Server, Sybase

BeyondGET or OtherVerbs, an Augmented API Platform

by on 03/17/2013

I have a idea for a new API platform. Since I do not have any startup aspirations, I prefer setting my ideas free, for anyone to use, instead of acting on them myself. This idea is an evolution from an earlier one, which I had while working with the CityGrid API, called “augmented places”.  While at CityGrid I constantly had people asking if they could submit data back to the API. Stating they had a better list of pizza places in Brooklyn or vegan restaurants in Santa Cruz. I had to always turn these folks away, and one morning I sketched out “augmented places”. It would be a service where anyone could submit their own meta data about a place, either adding an entirely new place, updating an existing one, or even remove a listing. It would provide an external service that could augment all places APIs, not just CityGrid. Fast forward to the other night, I did some data journalism for my girlfriend Audrey (@audreywatters), which included pulling data from the Crunchbase API. I pulled 3000 education startups from around the world, then after delivering to her in a JSON object and Google Spreadsheet, I immediately used the script to pull any API related startup, for my own needs.... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, Augmented API, Idea, startup, Verbs

The API Pipes, From Resource to Last Mile

by on 03/17/2013

This post is more rant, and about me working through my thoughts on this subject, which is why its on kinlane. com and not apievangelist. com or apivoice. com.  This post is an aggregation of ongoing thoughts I'm having around my role in the API space, a diagram I drew the other day while enjoying an IPA, and inescapable thoughts fueled up by a post by Patrick Meir over at iRevolution, called Crisis Mapping, Neogeography and the Delusion of Democratization.   Meir kicks up a bunch of thoughts related to how I perceive my role in the API space, which I believe is to help keep a certain amount of oxygen (aka open) present in the space, which I believe is the key ingredient in why the expirement we know as APIs is working.  At first glance, API Evangelist looks like just a blog, but in reality it is a pretty complex system of data stores, API connectors, jobs and curation that I'm using to help draw a map of the API space that I can follow. Currently it looks something like this: The way I see the space, is there are a shitload of resources, awaiting to be exposed via APIs that are both public and private resources.... read more.

Tags: Kin Lane

Braintree Launches JS Library to Help Developers With PCI

by on 03/16/2013

Next generation payment provider Braintree just launched a new JavaScript library that helps merchants reduce their PCI scope in a flexible and testable way, which they are calling appropriately Braintree. js. According to Braintree, the library:. uses asymmetric encryption to prevent raw credit card data from passing through merchants' servers. It intercepts a form submit in the browser that contains sensitive data, encrypts that data with a public key provided to merchants by Braintree and then submits the form with the encrypted data to the server. Braintree retains the private key of the key pair so that merchants are unable to decrypt the encrypted fields server-side. Any string field in Braintree's API can be encrypted and encrypted values can be transparently dropped into any API call I’m a big supporter of what I call a healthy embeddable strategy, which includes buttons, badges, widgets and other tools you can build on top of an API or to support API integration. With the rise in populartiy of JavaScript, and the growth of platforms like Node. js, I predict that providing your API developers with standardized JS libraries that extend the value of your API will become commonplace.... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, Braintree, Embeddable, JavaScript, Payments

Using The Crunchbase API

by on 03/16/2013

Audrey came to me last night and said she had a project that she wanted to tackle, using the CrunchBase API. She wanted to pull a list of education startups that were founded in 2010-2012, showing their investments, CEO, founders and other related company information. A couple weeks ago, I helped Audrey download a PHP Twitter bot, reverse engineer and make it work for an objective she had around Tweeting random responses to a certain type of tweet. I figured she was ready to see what it took to hack on an API and get the research data she needed. Audrey wanted to pull a list of startups that were educated related. We started with the /search endpoint, using the query keyword “education”. The query parameter appears to search the title, tags and overview of each Crunchbase entry, pulling way more than what we needed, 5700 in total. Each search returned 10 startups, with a handful of fields for each company, not nearly enough information. To prove we could get what we needed, we took the first startup returned, grabbed the name and used it to perform a company /entity search, returning a wealth of information.... read more.

Tags: API Evangelist, CrunchBase, Investment, Silicon Valley, startup, Techcrunch


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