Stripe Archives - DevRelate

Providing a Systems and Services Status Page and API for your Developers

by David I | Aug 9, 2017 | APIs, Cloud Computing, DevRelate, Programming |

When a developer’s app is built using one or more remote services and a problem occurs, users will start reporting a problem. Users will not necessarily know what is causing the problem. It could be issues with a cloud based service’s API, a cloud storage system or a bug in the software. How can your app know what the problem? Developer programs that provides services and APIs should also provide a live, frequently updated status page. Providing status APIs and pages allows the software, developers, partners, ISVs and even end users to track down problems. Ultimately the solution to any problem is the responsibility of the app developer (and company) regardless of where the fault is. Well designed and implemented developer programs should provide an API to check status and receive notifications for apps to fail-over, recover, fail gracefully and display problem information and solutions to users.

Developer System Status Pages

Here are a few developer program system status pages that I’ve found in my research and assessments. Some sites also provide APIs, feeds and subscriptions to program and API status information.

Amazon AWS – https://status.aws.amazon.com/
Apple – https://developer.apple.com/system-status/
DocMagic status dashboard – https://www.docmagic.com/webservices/status/main.jsp
DocuSign System Status – https://trust.docusign.com/en-us/system-status/
DropBox – https://status.dropbox.com/
eBay API Status – https://go.developer.ebay.com/api-status
GitHub – https://status.github.com/
Google G-Suite – https://www.google.com/appsstatus#hl=en&v=status
Google Cloud – https://status.cloud.google.com/
Kickbox
Microsoft Azure – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/status/?v=17.23h
Slack – https://status.slack.com/
Stripe – https://status.stripe.com/
Telesign – http://status.telesign.com/
Twilio – https://status.twilio.com/

Status Page Hosting and API services

Altassian, for example, provides to customers a status page hosting service and API. You can find details of the developer service at https://www.statuspage.io/. Here is a list of some of the companies that use the hosting and API service:

Box – https://status.box.com/
Braintree (Paypal) – https://status.braintreepayments.com/
CircleCi – https://status.circleci.com/
Edmunds Developer – http://edmunds.statuspage.io/
HubSpot – https://status.hubspot.com/
Intuit – http://status.developer.intuit.com/
KickBox – http://status.kickbox.io/
KickStarter – https://status.kickstarter.com/
KISSmetrics – https://kissmetrics.statuspage.io/
Librato – https://status.librato.com/
Reddit – http://www.redditstatus.com/
SquareSpace – https://status.squarespace.com/
Vimeo – http://www.vimeostatus.com/

3^rd Party Status Check Sites

There are several 3^rd party status check sites that monitor popular sites and provide an edit box to input a URL. You can use these services to see if another site/service is up or down. Some, like DownDetector, provide APIs (for a fee) to check on service status.

Cloud Harmony – https://cloudharmony.com/
Outage Report – http://outage.report/
Downdetector – http://downdetector.com/
Currently Down – http://currentlydown.com/
Is It Down Right Now? – http://www.isitdownrightnow.com/
Website Planet – https://www.websiteplanet.com/

Do you provide a service status page and status API as part of your developer program?

If you have your developer service status and API, send me an email with additional information and the links to the status page and API.

David Intersimone “David I”
Vice President of Developer Communities
Evans Data Corporation
davidi@evansdata.com
Blog: https://www.devrelate.com/blog/
Skype: davidi99
Twitter: @davidi99
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidi99/

Developer Relations and your Company’s APIs – webinar info and links

by David I | May 30, 2017 | APIs, DevRelate, Webinar |

This week, I am presenting a DevRelate webinar, “Developer Relations and your Company’s APIs” on Wednesday (May 31) and Thursday (June 1). This blog post contains additional information and links covered in the webinar.

APIs and Your Company

“Developers Demand Programs to Support APIs” – Evans Data Press Release May 3, 2017
“The Impact of APIs on Firm Performance” – Boston University Questrom School of Business Research Paper No. 2843326, last updated May 23, 2017
Importance of APIs to your company’s strategy – find insights in the Evans Data Global Development Survey v1 2017

Developer Relations and APIs

23 Top Content Bits to Connect to Each of your Developer Relations Assets
Adam Rogal’s (Uber) Evans Data Developer Relations Conference 2017 Keynote – Evolution of a Developer Platform: an Inside Out Journey

API Documentation Examples

Twilio – https://www.twilio.com/docs/
Stripe – https://stripe.com/docs
Slack – https://slack.com/developers
Visa API Explorer: https://developer.visa.com/apiexplorer
Vantiv triPOS: uses Swagger documentation

API Versioning – Overview

REST

URI
Request parameter
Media type (aka content negotiation & accept header)
Date
Custom request header
Domain name

SOAP

XML namespaces and XML comments
UDDI version aware service registry

Shared Code Files

Filename
Version resource

API Resource Links

How are REST APIs versioned?
API versioning methods, a brief reference
Open API Initiative
REST API Design Tips from Experience – A working guide of API design tips and trend evaluations.

API Documentation Generation Tools

Swagger API tooling and Swagger Open Source Integrations
Doxygen – tool for generating documentation from source code (C++, Objective-C, C#, PHP, Java, Python, etc.)
Sphinx – documentation generator for Python
Doc-O-Matic – source code documentation and help authoring tool
Apiary – Interactive Documentation

Additional Swagger Resources

The following Swagger related links were provided by SmartBear Software (thank you Keshav and Tracy)

[Blog] API Design Best Practices – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/api-design-best-practices/
[Blog] What is API Design, and Why it Matters – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/what-is-api-design/
[Webinar] Scaling your API Design Process – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/scaling-your-api-design/
[eBook] Optimizing the Swagger collaborative workflow using SwaggerHub – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-resources/optimize-your-swagger-api-workflow/
[Blog] Design first or Code first approach to APIs – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-design/design-first-or-code-first-api-development/
[Webinar] API Developer Experience (DX), and good documentation practices for good DX – https://swaggerhub.com/blog/api-documentation/api-documentation-and-developer-experience/

API Versioning – Examples

AWS SimpleDB – dated version parameter
Microsoft Azure Storage Services – custom header
Stripe – dated version parameter
Twilio – date in URI
GitHub – media type versioning
Facebook – URI versioning and migrations

Facebook / Parse (BaaS) API Shutdown Example

Announcement: http://blog.parse.com/announcements/moving-on/
Reminder: http://blog.parse.com/announcements/a-parse-shutdown-reminder/

Evans Data Developer Program Workshops and Assessments

Program Workshops for Stakeholders and Developer Relations Teams
Program Assessments – External developer program assessment and In-Depth developer program assessment
https://evansdata.com/services/workshops-assessments.php

If you have additional API links, best practices, tools, tips, tricks, thoughts and questions, send me an email.

DRC 2017 Boot Camp – Best Practices from attendees

by David I | Apr 13, 2017 | Developer Outreach, Developer Programs News, Developer Relations, DevRelate |

During one of the Evans Data 13th Annual Developer Relations Conference Sunday Boot Camp sessions on Best Practices (featuring developer programs and features from boot camp attendees), three specific developer program sites were called out by several of the attendees. In addition, we also had the opportunity to have two of our Boot Camp faculty members on hand to talk more about their developer programs, sites and features.

Ford Developer Program

Scott Burnell, Ford Motor Company Global Lead, Business Development & Partner Management, spent a few minutes talking about the Ford Developer Program and took questions from the attendees. Scott covered several of the Ford developer program offerings including:

SYNC® AppLink™ – AppLink is a suite of APIs that provide the ability for mobile developers to extend the command and control of a mobile application to the in-vehicle Human Machine Interface (HMI).
- https ://developer.ford.com/pages/applink
- Android, iOS
- ALE – Sync 3 ApplinkTM Emulator
- Technical Development Kit (TDK) hardware
- Distribute – iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, Myapp , Baidu, or more

Ford Sync

Smart Device Link (SDL) – an open-source POSIX-compliant technology platform on which the Ford AppLink product is built and allows it to communicate between applications running on a mobile device and our SYNC in-vehicle software.
- https://developer.ford.com/pages/sdl
- POSIX-compliant technology platform
- Deploy to Linux, QNX, or other popular embedded operating systems
- Communicate with any mobile device OS such as iOS or Android.

OpenXC – a non-production open source interface, designed to attract top developers to experiment with DIY projects in Ford vehicles (with or without SYNC).
- http://openxcplatform.com /
- Open Source software interface
- Open Source hardware specification

Ford TDK

ThingWorx Developer Program

Michael Aglietti, VP of Developer Programs at ThingWorx, got up next and spent a few minutes going over the ThingWorx developer program, specific aspects that are unique to an IoT company and took questions from the attendees. Michael covered some of the ThingWorx offerings including:

“Begin Your IoT Journey”
- https://developer.thingworx.com /
Program is focused to help developers:
- Make – ThingWorx allows you to connect anything and everything including devices, sensors, and systems. By leveraging the power of the platform, you can quickly build impactful solutions.
- Analyze – You do not have to be a data scientist to produce insights as if you were one. Leverage our platform to derive meaningful insights from your data.
- Code – Use the ThingWorx development tools and API’s to quickly connect devices and build secure applications. Leverage existing systems and device clouds for ultimate flexibility.

Thingworks Make Analyze Code

REST APIs – Quick starts, How To’s, Cheat Sheets
SDKs for Java, .NET, C, iOS, Android
Edge Micro Server (EMS) – Raspberry Pi
Marketplace – The ThingWorx Marketplace gives you easy access to everything you need to build and run your ThingWorx based IoT application: From extensions and apps that can be downloaded and integrated directly into your ThingWorx application to partners that can help you build your IoT solution or offer certified and compatible products that work with it.
- https ://marketplace.thingworx.com /
- Apps
- Extensions
- Partners
- Certified Products

ThingWorx Analytics

Three Developer Programs attendees said had great Documentation Best Practices

Several of the boot camp attendees mentioned the following three developer programs saying they had great documentation for developers.

slack_api_logo Twilio Mark - Red

Thank You AngelHack, Boot Camp Faculty, Product Marketing Panelists and Attendees

A big thanks to AngelHack for sponsoring this year’s Evans Data Developer Relations Boot Camp. Two big thank you(s) to Scott (from Ford) and Michael (from ThingWorx). And finally, massive thank you(s) to all of our great boot camp attendees for your participation and your feedback surveys. With your help we will continue to evolve the boot camp day to meet your needs. I hope we see you again next year!

Get Started for Free!

Register for a free account to access Developer Relations resources, presentations, preview course videos, customize your profile and more!

Already a member, Log in

Get Certified in Developer Relations

We offer a wide variety of courses ranging from Business Strategy to Loyalty that will help build or enhance your developer program.

Get Certified!

Once you complete the courses, your DevRelate certificate appears in our directory, which companies can search for qualified personnel.

Use EDC’s Developer Relations online courses to efficiently train members of your team, keep up to date with the best practices, access expert advice and resources.

Dive right in and get started by signing up for our complete certification program.