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Building an API (Help Required)

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  • 08-03-2019 2:19pm
    #1
    callaway92
    Registered Users Posts: 14,573 ✭✭✭✭


    Hi folks

    Working in Sports Data but have some ideas of my own that I'd like to do on my own end with some certain sports.

    1) Would anyone here know of anyone that would have experience in building an API? (xml and JSON preferably)

    2) Would self-training to do this be a moronic thing to do?

    If anyone does know anyone with experience in this and would like to get in contact with me I'd be happy to hear from them because I could use help!

    Thanks


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    #2
    John_Mc
    Registered Users Posts: 2,791 ✭✭✭John_Mc


    Learn to do it yourself or pay someone to do it for you. No chance of a developer wanting to work for you for free.


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    #3
    Att vara en hest
    Registered Users Posts: 110 ✭✭Att vara en hest


    Do you have any experience whatsoever with what you're trying to do?

    You probably won't find anyone who will do it for free, the world is full of great ideas but the people who can execute them are few.

    If you have some background on the topic I'd say start yourself and then as you run in to troubles reach out to relevant groups on stackoverflow, discord etc. Consider having a look over at Fiverr as well for some cheap help, but do keep in mind that some people there wouldn't hesitate to take your idea and run with it. Be careful of who you trust :)


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    #4
    callaway92
    Registered Users Posts: 14,573 ✭✭✭✭callaway92


    John_Mc wrote: »
    Learn to do it yourself or pay someone to do it for you. No chance of a developer wanting to work for you for free.

    Where in Jaysis’ name did I mention it being for free????


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    #5
    callaway92
    Registered Users Posts: 14,573 ✭✭✭✭callaway92


    Both replies commented on me not getting help for free. I didn’t even say I wouldn’t pay. The hell like!! Ha


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    #6
    lawred2
    Registered Users Posts: 24,349 ✭✭✭✭lawred2


    callaway92 wrote: »
    Hi folks

    Working in Sports Data but have some ideas of my own that I'd like to do on my own end with some certain sports.

    1) Would anyone here know of anyone that would have experience in building an API? (xml and JSON preferably)

    2) Would self-training to do this be a moronic thing to do?

    If anyone does know anyone with experience in this and would like to get in contact with me I'd be happy to hear from them because I could use help!

    Thanks

    I'll do it for payment


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    #7
    Clareman
    Moderators, Sports Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators Posts: 23,956 Mod ✭✭✭✭Clareman


    Are you looking to pull data from an outside source or trying to make yours available to others?

    If it's pulling data from others you'll probably be able to get API documentation that'll have samples in it, e.g. https://developers.facebook.com/ if you are making your data available you'll have to setup some webservices and stuff


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    #8
    callaway92
    Registered Users Posts: 14,573 ✭✭✭✭callaway92


    Looking to make my own data available for others. I'm in contact with very high-end potential clients for a couple of specific sports so would like to take it on.


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    #9
    listermint
    Registered Users Posts: 33,903 ✭✭✭✭listermint


    Set yourself up a test environment in AWS. Database, loadbalancing and API gateway.

    There are plenty of tutorials for this . And you can scale with AWS should you grow.


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    #10
    Clareman
    Moderators, Sports Moderators, Regional Midwest Moderators Posts: 23,956 Mod ✭✭✭✭Clareman


    If it's just 1 or 2 clients then maybe giving direct access maybe easier than setting up a suite of APIs. If you really want to go down the API route then as listermint says AWS is probably the easiest/cheapest way to get started, their support is usually excellent as well


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    #11
    PixelTrawler
    Registered Users Posts: 2,299 ✭✭✭PixelTrawler


    Can only speak for c#, but building Apis is pretty straightforward. Ive both built and consumed REST and SOAP apis for many years.

    What you do you want to get right is api security. Will there be api keys and how are customers setup and managed. How will access to data be controlled?

    You can hose out data fairly easily but there’s definitely some infrastructure to get right.

    Oh and put in an api version system. You can have multiple versions of an api so that as you roll out changes, your customers can safely keep using the older version and migrate over time. E.g. your endpoints might contain v1 as part of the address.

    Oh and dont forget automated tests of the api. Manually checking json is not fun.


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    #12
    BrokenArrows
    Registered Users Posts: 7,501 ✭✭✭BrokenArrows


    Creating an API which gives data to a user is very straight forward but the complexities are:

    1. Security. Do you want to restrict this data from being used or will anyone be able to access it? Is it transferring private information and would require HTTPS?

    2. Actual Data. Where does the actual data come from? Whose responsibility is it to keep it updated. Does the API accept input as well as output.

    3. Load. How many people users do you expect? Building an API which will be accessed by a handful of times a day is different than building an API which you expect to be accessed millions of times a day.


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