Slides for the 3-hour workshop organised by STC-India Bangalore on Sep 8, 2018

1. API documentation
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A workshop

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Workshop goals
• Create your API
• Document it
• Reference documents
• Concept documents
• HowTos

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APIs

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Create an API
1. Create an account at sheetlabs.com.

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Create an API
1. Create an account at sheetlabs.com.
Give a name to
your account.
Give a 3-letter
code for your
account.
All fields are
mandatory.

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Create an API
1. Create an account at sheetlabs.com.
2. Click Data tables > Import Data Table and import your spreadsheet.
Accept the default selections.

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Create an API
1. Create an account at sheetlabs.com.
2. Click Data tables > Import Data Table and import your spreadsheet.
Accept the default selections.

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Create an API
1. Create an account at sheetlabs.com.
2. Click Data tables > Import Data Table and import your spreadsheet.
Accept the default selections.
3. Click Create an API from this Data Table. Accept the defaults.

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Create an API
1. Create an account at sheetlabs.com.
2. Click Data tables > Import Data Table and import your spreadsheet.
Accept the default selections.
3. Click Create an API from this Data Table. Accept the defaults.
Required field
Required field
Change the
permission to
Public.
Leave this as-is.
Leave this as-is.

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Go to the API you just created

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1
2
Go to the API you just created

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Document your API
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Document your API
What does your
API do/contain?
Can the results
returned by
your API be
filtered?
If so, describe
how to use the
fields to filter
results.Describe what
these fields
mean in the
results
returned by
your API.

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Document your API
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Checkpoint
• Create your API
• Document it
• Reference documents
• Concept documents
• HowTos

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About your API

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About your API
• Authentication
• Rate limits
• License
• Error codes
• Versions and release notes
• Additional resources

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https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/documentation/glo
ssary
https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/basics/authentication
/overview/oauth

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https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/documentation/glo
ssary
https://developer.twitter.com/en/docs/basics/authentication
/overview/oauth
Use your favourite word processor to write
a conceptual document for your API.

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Checkpoint
• Create your API
• Document it
• Reference documents
• Concept documents
• HowTos

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https://editor.swagger.io/

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Import the YAML file I emailed you

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Document your API in Swagger
Give a title
to your API

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HTTP methods
• GET
• POST
• DELETE

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Make a GET request to your API

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Document your API in Swagger

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Checkpoint
• Create your API 
• Document it
• Reference documents  
• Concept documents 
• HowTos

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Task documentation
• Examples
• Code libraries
• SDKs

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Create an algorithm

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Create an algorithm
Input: 2 numbers
Output: The number that’s greater

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Create an algorithm
get 2 numbers X and Y
if X < Y,
Print "Y is greater than X"
else,
Print "X is greater than Y"

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Create an algorithm
• Data source: Your API
• Goal: Find the youngest person in the
database.

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Create an algorithm
1. Make a GET request to the API.
2. From the results, extract the
following two fields, and put them
into a list:
• name
• bornwhen
3. Sort the list in ascending order.
4. Print the value of name of the first
entry in the list.

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Play with APIs

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Play with APIs
• Game of Thrones: https://anapioficeandfire.com/
• Star Wars: https://swapi.co/
• Harry Potter: https://www.potterapi.com/
• Oxford Dictionaries:
https://developer.oxforddictionaries.com/documentation
• Vedas: https://aninditabasu.github.io/rigVeda/

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