What exactly are Web APIs? Why are Web APIs so popular and widely used? This presentation explores what APIs are and how they have evolved into what we call Web APIs. To learn more, read the "What are Web APIs" article on Medium: https://hackernoon.com/what-are-web-apis-c74053fa4072 Presented at IronHack, in Barcelona, on January 2018.

1. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
What are Web APIs
Bruno Pedro / IronHack Barcelona / January 2018

2. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
About me
• Since 2004 has been building hundreds of API integrations
• 2008: Co-founded tarpipe, a predecessor to IFTTT and Zapier
• 2016: Co-founded Hitch, API community & support platform
• 2017: Working on APIs & Integrations at New Relic

3. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Summary
• Definition of API
• Different types of APIs
• Brief history of Web APIs
• Architecting the next 10 years

4. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Different APIs
Operating
System
Library
Remote
Web

5. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
AT&T Unix BSD LinuxSun

6. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Operating System APIs
Operating System
System
calls
IPC

7. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Library APIs
Operating System
POSIX GNU C
Operating System APIs

8. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sun RPC
sockets
AT&T UNIX BSD LinuxSun

9. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Remote APIs
Operating System
RPC
OS APIs
Libraries
Operating System
RPC
OS APIs
Libraries

10. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sun RPC
SOA
sockets
standardization
AT&T UNIX BSD LinuxSun

11. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sun RPC
SOA
WWW
sockets
standardization
AT&T UNIX BSD LinuxSun

12. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Web APIs

13. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sun RPC
SOA
WWW
SOAP
sockets
standardization
integration
AT&T UNIX BSD LinuxSun

14. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sun RPC
SOA
WWW
SOAP
sockets
standardization
REST
integration
simplification
AT&T UNIX BSD LinuxSun

15. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
History of
Web APIs
1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s
Sun RPC
SOA
WWW
SOAP
sockets
standardization
REST
gRPC
GraphQL
integration
simplification
control
data
AT&T UNIX BSD LinuxSun

16. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
What’s next?
Metcalfe’s Law
Utility
APIs

17. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Microservices

18. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Complexity

19. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Asynchronous APIs
broker

20. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Distributed APIs
caller
?
?
?

21. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
What’s next?
?

22. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved
Takeaways
• Different types of APIs
• It all started with UNIX and IPC
• The creation of the WWW changed everything
• Technology doesn’t matter, architecture does

23. ©2008–18 New Relic, Inc. All rights reserved.
Thank you
Q & A
Bruno Pedro / IronHack Barcelona / January 2018