• TIBCO Software Inc.
  • Documentation
  • Support
  • Community
  • Contact
TIBCOBlog TIBCO Blog
TIBCOBlog TIBCOBlog
Search the blog
  • Analytics
  • Customer Success
  • Event Processing
  • Industries
  • Integration
  • Thought Leadership
  • Tips & Tricks
Integration
  • API
  • BPM
  • Digital Transformation
  • MDM

Smarter APIs for Digital Business

by Ed Julson

January 16, 2018

  • API

Application programming interface. API. Software development concept
Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInGoogle+

APIs are one of the key foundational technologies that makes digital business possible. APIs enable new ways of interacting with customers and expanding existing sales channels and partnerships for delivery of digital services and innovation. The rapid growth of embeddable developer services such as Google Maps, Twitter, Twillio, credit card processing, shipping calculators, and many many more open services would not be possible without APIs.

Over the past five years, REST APIs have emerged as the dominant form of API design. This didn’t happen by chance. REST APIs are popular because they provide a simple programming model, can provide a programmatic interface to just about anything, and scale very well for web and mobile applications. However, as the graphic below illustrates, the demands of digital business are driving the need for evolution of API design to support new application patterns and push the limits for what current API design approaches are capable of supporting.

Screen Shot 2018-01-15 at 6.56.16 PM

REST APIs have historically been a great choice for enabling access to backend data and application logic, especially where there is a well defined set of data inputs and outputs that can be serviced through a simple Request/Reply message pattern. A REST API call always executes in the form of accepting a request and returning a response. Simple, but effective.

However, REST APIs are not well suited to the needs of the new class of emerging applications that monitor real-time data streams and use sophisticated analytics and machine learning algorithms to identify and act on business opportunities (exposed as events). An event is not an API call. It’s a notification that something has happened. Events don’t fit into the request/reply API pattern and need to be handled differently.

For example, events generated through streaming analytics are more dynamic and less predictable, typically have a limited window of opportunity to act on, and often act as a trigger to kick off more complex API flows that involve multiple downstream steps or actions.

Multi-step execution flows, mixed message exchange patterns, and the concept of event handling are not supported by the REST programming model. We need something different.

Developers who are out on the leading edge today working with some of these newer application patterns used in digital business recognize the inherent shortcomings of REST APIs in dealing with the realtime and dynamic nature of event-oriented application styles. They are actively experimenting with ways to handle more sophisticated messaging patterns and data flows that go hand-in-hand with evented APIs. In essence, they are trying to build smarter APIs.

REST APIs aren’t going away anytime soon. But for developers who are trying to build APIs that provide maximum flexibility and agility, evented APIs that go beyond REST and support mixed messaging patterns (like pub/sub and multicasting) are the way forward.

Here are some of the characteristics of evented APIs, along with some use case examples. Evented API can:

  • Consume and generate events
  • Support mixed message exchange patterns (request/reply, pub/sub, multicast, etc.)
  • Interact with streaming analytics
  • Leverage microservices architecture
  • Provide much richer API functionality

Screen Shot 2018-01-15 at 2.13.05 PM

TIBCO is investing in tooling and capabilities to help developers support evented API and have recently started an open source project on github, called Project Mashling. Project Mashing is a microgateway that allows developers to build composable event-driven microservices and APIs, based on the concept of flow based “recipes” using visual tooling. It’s extremely lightweight (<10MB) and can be embedded in edge devices or used for serverless applications. For more information, you can go to http://www.mashling.io

Join us on January 18 for a joint webinar with Gartner where we will be talking about evented microservices; why we need them, what they are, and challenges to consider in evented API design. You can register for this webinar by clicking on this link.

Share on FacebookTweet about this on TwitterShare on LinkedInGoogle+
analytics api digital business evented API Gartner machine learning Mashery Mashling microservices webinar

Ed Julson

Ed Julson is a software industry veteran with broad experience in a variety of product marketing and product management roles. Ed has spent the past decade working with Service Oriented Architecture and led the effort to develop and deliver web services API's into the Java SE and EE platforms. The emerging use of Public API's and the potential they have to change the way we develop applications and business models for delivering them, is an area that Ed has great passion for.

Previous Story
Flogo Runs Natively on AWS Lambda
Next Story
The Future of Casinos

Related Posts

  • IOT business man hand working and internet of things (IoT) word diagram as concept
    3 Musketeers—IoT, Middleware, APIs
  • Free Trial Storage Member Concept
    Trial Licenses Put the Buyer in the Driver’s Seat
  • Double exposure of professional businessman connected devices with world digital technology internet and wireless network on touch screen and city of business background in business and technology concept
    Got APIs? Why You Still Need an Integration Platform
  • Business Technology Internet and network concept. Young businessman working on a virtual screen of the future and sees the inscription: API
    The Changing Face of API Management
  • mash
    TIBCO NOW Day 2—APIs at the Heart of Digital Transformation
  • Less is More Minimal Simplicity Efficient Complexity Concept
    Sometimes Less Really Is More
  • Cloud computing service concept - connect to cloud. Businessman offering cloud computing service represented by icon communication with cloud represented by lines and light points.
    What’s New in TIBCO Cloud Integration

Leave a Comment

Cancel reply

Search

@TIBCO

Friday Apr 20 • 8:31pmIt’s race day for @teamTIBCO! We’re cheering on our intrepid riders as they take to the tarmac at the… https://t.co/X0qRpdGWgP

Friday Apr 20 • 4:38pmThanks to the great group of new TIBCO employees from around the world who gathered in Palo Alto for a week of insi… https://t.co/VzguuaJtKf

Friday Apr 20 • 2:26pmInsurance companies are losing millions per year by not adequately assessing the lifetime value of their customers.… https://t.co/sDN8QDgKa8

Follow Us »

Follow Us

TIBCO Cloud™

Simplify the way you capture data, connect applications, and turn decisions into actions.


Free Trial

Subscribe to The TIBCO Blog updates

Follow us
Copyright © 2018 TIBCO Software Inc. All rights reserved.
| Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Site Map | Trademarks