With APIs and Software Libraries, How Much Code Is Needed to Create Something Immensely Useful? Not Much…

August 9, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, API Science API, Integrations, JSON, Performance, Reporting, Teams

Your business likely requires customized views of the data that is core to the creation of your product. Decades ago, accomplishing this involved development of large data analysis software libraries that were customized to a company’s particular needs, along with user interfaces that enabled employees to view the data, so they could respond to anomalies.

Much has changed in recent decades. Data analysis code that had to be custom-developed decades ago is now available in software libraries such as Python’s NumPy and SciPy. Similarly, modern data display libraries available, for example, Matplotlib. This code is well tested and verified by a large user community. By utilizing these libraries, developers can simply call verified functions, rather than developing new custom code.

Meanwhile, Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) have immensely simplified the programming effort required to access large amounts of important data. In particular, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) facilitates downloading data from APIs in a format that is easily ingested by most modern programming languages that are suited to data analysis, for example, Java and Python…

How to Create an Automated Custom Web Site that Displays API Performance Data

July 9, 2018August 9, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, API Science API, Integrations, JSON, Performance, Teams

For your company to succeed, your API-based product must provide maximal performance and uptime to your customers. In order to provide this, you need to monitor the APIs (both internal and external) that are critical for your product’s customer experience. This series of posts illustrates how you can create a custom automated web site that […]

How to Use MatPlotLib to Display API Performance Data

June 13, 2018July 9, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, API Science API, Integrations, JSON, Performance, Reporting, Teams

In my previous two posts, I illustrated how your team can Use cron and curl to Regularly Download API Performance Data and How to Use Python to Extract API Performance Data. In this post, I illustrate how you can use the Python MatPlotLib library to create plots of the downloaded data that will be of […]

How to Use Python to Extract JSON API Performance Data

June 6, 2018June 13, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, API Science API, Integrations, JSON, Performance, Reporting

In my last post, I described How to Use cron and curl to Regularly Download API Performance Data. This is the first step toward creating a view of API performance data that is customized for your company’s needs. Once you have the raw data, you can use your company’s preferred programming languages and the custom […]

How to Use cron and curl to Regularly Download API Performance Data

May 30, 2018June 6, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, API Science API, JSON, Performance, Reporting, Teams

API performance is critical for modern applications. People use their phones and tablets to immediately access information that is relevant to what they’re doing or thinking about right now. If your company’s objective is to provide this information, then you need to know how your product appears to your customers. If your product relies on […]

How to Use Your API Science One-Month Free Trial (Part 3)

May 21, 2018May 30, 2018 Kevin Farnham Alert Rules, API Monitoring, Getting Started, Performance, Reporting, Teams

When you’ve created and configured your first API Science monitor, you’ll want to configure automated notifications to your team when something involving a critical external or internal API goes awry. You’ll also want to study the performance of your critical APIs using API Science reports. Configuring API Monitor Notifications While your customers access your product […]

The Effect of “Internet Distance” on Perceived API Performance

May 2, 2018May 7, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, Global Monitoring, Performance

Everyone knows that when we travel, the physical distance we must traverse is a determinate factor in how long it will take for us to reach our destination. We travel highways by car, or go by rail, or fly. By car, we can use maps to plot the shortest, fastest route. By rail or flying, […]

7 Ways to Validate that Your APIs Are Working Correctly

February 21, 2018March 19, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Best Practices, API Monitoring, API Science API, JavaScript, JSON, Performance

Online products that provide a complex service typically rely on Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), utilizing online resources to provide basic information. The added value is in how their own software uses this information to create a new product that is of value to their users. The APIs that are utilized to create this unique product […]

Why You Need to Monitor Your Product’s External and Internal APIs

January 31, 2018February 21, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Best Practices, API Monitoring, API Science API, Performance

If your company provides a web service, then maximizing your site’s uptime and providing your customer with the latest information your service provides should be prime objectives. Depending on what’s happening at the exact moment a customer makes a request to your service (clicks a button, enters text, clicks an image, etc.), your software must […]

Utilizing the API Science Platform to Maximize Uptime for Your Customers

January 22, 2018January 31, 2018 Kevin Farnham API Monitoring, API Science API, Getting Started, Performance, Reporting

So, you’ve invented a great new product that everyone who has a smartphone or tablet can access. Your product’s uniqueness is embedded in your internal software, but you also rely on data accessed from external APIs. Your software includes internal APIs utilized by the product you present to your customers as they interact with your […]