At Mashery's Business of API's Conference we shared data from our survey of developer pain to let API providers know where they could do better, and to sound a call to action for all the providers out there to start working together

1. Why Your API Sucks
Business of APIs Conference, SF, 10/4/2011
An API developer survey opens Pandora’s Box
http://bit.ly/trove-survey-results
Seth Blank, Founder
www.yourtrove.com
s@yourtrove.com
@AntiFreeze
10/4/2011
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2. We did a survey on API Pain
It made some waves
You can view it here:
http://bit.ly/trove-survey-results
10/4/2011
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3. “Facebook Wins ‘Worst API’ in Developer Survey”
- TechCrunch
“Developers relate a tale of woe with Facebook's
API”
- The Inquirer
“Developer survey finds Facebook has the worst
API”
- ZD Net
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4. Booooring
It’s no real secret that Facebook’s API is widely loathed
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5. Developers Hate Your API
“Every integration is its own
[expletive-deleted] adventure.”
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6. APIs don’t live in a vacuum
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7. “different idiosyncrasies, ie rate limiting, terms
of service, data format, old documentation etc.”
“REST vs. XML-RPC vs. SOAP,
JSON vs. XML vs. Random POST data.
Every API seems to be different”
“REST uses the HTTP spec, but few API providers
actually follow the spec properly.”
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8. “Guarantee me that any API you
support will exist in its current form
(bugs and all!) for at least 12
months, and I will give you so much
fucking money.”
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9. “Guarantee me that any API you
support will exist in its current form
(bugs and all!) for at least 12 months,
and I will give you
so much fucking
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10. Where else are you losing
Developer’s $$$?!
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11. Your Documentation Sucks
“poor documentation” mentioned 41 times
“lack of good examples + sandboxes”
“Documentation and examples. Give me those,
keep them up to date and I’m happy.”
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12. Your Error Handling and
Test Environments Suck
“error handling” a frequent complaint
“Complete lack of test environments.”
“The ones that you can’t test from a localhost
suck”
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13. We suck more together
Inconsistent standards, libraries, and
documentation
“REST vs. XML-RPC vs. SOAP,
JSON vs. XML vs. Random POST data.
Every API seems to be different”
“Change is good, but change when it breaks
existing 3rd party API’s is a nightmare.”
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14. We suck more together
“Random 3rd party outages that take you out as
well”
Error Codes differ between services.
On bad Auth, Some 404, others 401.
And some 500. This is hell on devs.
“Different data formats from different services
for essentially the same data.”
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15. And there’s so much other
confusion
Authentication vs. Authorization
Oh do developers hate OAuth
(users, too!)
Actually getting through to stakeholders (that’s
YOU)
Rate limiting and billing
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16. “Paypal. Sweet god, fuck paypal.” “OMFG Salesforce
“Digg is basically a giant API sucks. That is
example of ‘this is how to not all”
do it’.”
“Affiliate + API —
“Netsuite SOAPs almost no one does it
documentation is, umm… right.”
completely fucking incorrect”
“We’re still working on
“Too many to relate.”
it.”
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17. So let’s solve this. Together.
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18. More frequent and open
communications
We’re not in a vacuum!
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19. Humbleness
You might be awesome, but together we make a shitty team
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20. Standards and best practices
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21. Developer Bill of Rights
What can they expect from ALL of us?
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22. Hold our own accountable
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23. Recap
We’re not in this alone
We need to start thinking like team players
Cooperation amongst ourselves makes developers’ lives easier
Which means better adoption, retention, and revenue
We all get to win
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24. Your Business is NOT your API. It is
what that API provides access to.
So fix your API and the ecosystem around it!
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25. Thank you #BAPI!
http://bit.ly/trove-survey-results
Seth Blank, Founder
www.yourtrove.com
s@yourtrove.com
@AntiFreeze
10/4/2011
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