Providing Services for the Internet of Things, Part 2 Each API Developer has his own problem
23.12.2021A guest article by Dr. Erik Wilde *
APIs form an important basis for the flexible deployment of IoT applications. In the second part of this series, the author now goes into what the various developers involved should pay attention to.
Related companies
An open API platform that can be used well for IoT-based services will help all developer groups.
(© Blue Planet Studio – stock.adobe.com)
Connecting the information from the Internet of Things to services in an organization requires a mature API culture in addition to technologies and APIs in open IoT platforms. The developers also benefit from new possibilities, but are also confronted with new requirements.
Three groups of developers are affected differently:
- 1. Developers of applications that use IoT APIs: They develop mobile applications that want to use IoT, for example to improve the user experience (UX).
- 2. Developers in API Platform Teams: APIs are often part of an API platform. Developers need to integrate the individual APIs into such a platform.
- 3. Developers of IoT platforms: The things connected to the Internet are managed via the IoT platforms, which provide their data and services via APIs on the API platform.
Challenges for developers of the first group
eBook “API Development”
(Photo by Dev-Insider)
E-book on the topic
In general, you should be familiar with the general principles of how to use an API: you know the existing APIs and use the most appropriate ones. At the same time, you always expect that an interface will not work as intended. They take into account the need to further develop an API. Also, so that it behaves more robustly and reliably in the future.
You should also take into account the special features of IoT APIs. Because IoT platforms can offer a lot of data and services, it may be more difficult to keep track of APIs. The principles of general data economy also suggest using only those APIs where end users can understand what is happening to the data and benefit from it. They use the new authentication and authorization procedures that may be necessary. Consent management, i.e. recording whether a user has agreed to use his data, can also play an important role.
On the technical level, IoT APIs may use different API styles, which then also have to be used differently in applications. When using event-driven APIs, the application should support them. Depending on the environment, this results in new requirements: For web-based applications, for example, websockets are often used, which allow API events to be sent directly to the browser.
But what happens if this communication breaks down? Well-programmed applications recognize this and act accordingly: by restoring Websocket connections and warning if this does not succeed.
Challenges for Developers in API platform Teams
API platforms provide the environments in which APIs can be published, found and used. These must be flexible enough to also support the APIs of IoT platforms. Only an open API platform can do that.
Platform developers therefore best identify which features of their API platform are still missing in order to offer IoT APIs. Based on this inventory, they are continuously developing the platform to eliminate these shortcomings. IoT APIs are a driving force and determine what needs to be considered.
Challenges for IoT Platform Developers
What does it mean for IoT platform developers to provide APIs for their data and services? First of all, the general API practices are also relevant here. The requirement is always to make the IoT data and services usable in the best possible way via APIs. With active API portfolio management, developers prioritize applications.
The decisive factor is which information and services generate the greatest value. Each API is to be geared to benefits and users. APIs need to be presented on a platform, managed like products, so that developers can easily find APIs, easily understand their effect and use them without further ado.
Moreover, the sheer amount of pure information can often be a task in its own right. That is why it is particularly important in IoT scenarios to focus on the value of the data instead of disclosing large amounts of data and details unfiltered. At the same time, the constantly growing amount of data probably requires new requirements. The development teams of the IoT platform are necessarily choosing practices and processes, thanks to which they can quickly and effectively develop and deploy new APIs.
Conclusion
This article can be nothing more than a brief overview of which areas are touched in order to make IoT data and services of an organization more usable via APIs. An important aspect is that IoT APIs are ultimately simple APIs as well.
API strategy and platform should be superordinate to IoT activities. However, it may well be that the special characteristics of the Internet of Things require that API practices and platform be adapted for this purpose. However, this should not be a major obstacle when building an open API platform that can be used well for IoT-based services.
Dr. Erik Wilde
In the end, IoT is simply another driver of the general trend that organizations should cultivate “micro-products” that can be used via APIs. These then provide the foundation for the flexibility and speed with which an organization can better respond to the wishes of its customers and users, survive in the market or create competitive advantages for itself.
* Dr. Erik Wilde is a Catalyst and API expert at Axway.
E-book on the topic
API Development
eBook “API Development”
(Photo by Dev-Insider)
In the eBook you will learn more about:
Download the eBook “API Development”
