A Love Letter to OpenAPI
Taking time to use OpenAPI for planning makes API teams build better software. Also: Arrazo news, Speakeasy's OpenAPI Parser, JSON Streaming with OpenAPI 3.2, API World, and an API for the United State Congress.
With so many exciting OpenAPI stories in this issue, I find myself reflecting on what I love most about OpenAPI: planning. Using OpenAPI correctly and effectively promotes API Design First practices, which in turn leads to better APIs. A lack of design first principles always reminds me of why my creative writing essays failed in high school: a lack of planning.
My English teacher always told me to stop shooting from the hip and write some outlines instead, then build upon them. Personally, teenage Alexander thought she was an idiot, but she was right. Better planning leads to better software and more effective APIs. I am sorry I never listened Ms Robbinson.
If you need a refresher on API design first principles, Phil has got you covered.
-- Alexander
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API News, links, and tools from around the web
JSON Streaming in OpenAPI v3.2.0
Just like the browser handles HTML and images by streaming, you can also stream JSON APIs. A few standards have arisen to make this possible, and now the OpenAPI Spec allows you to define them. Phil is back writing another article for Bump.sh on documenting your streaming endpoints in OpenAPI.
Run Express.js on Cloudflare Workers
When building APIs on Cloudflare, my go-to stack has always been HonoJS. Cloudflare is continually working on its Node.js compatibility and now supports one of JavaScript's oldest and most popular web application frameworks, Express.js. Now you have more options for your Cloudflare-powered APIs.
Speakeasy: OpenAPI Parser
Speakeast has open-sourced their OpenAPI parser, something they use for their own OpenAPI work, SDK generation and more. Super interesting and not just because it is written in GO, but also supports Arazzo workflows and OpenAPI Overlays. Definitely worth checking out.
API World
One of the largest API conferences, API World, is taking place from September 3rd to 5th. If you don't have tickets and are interested in the talks, you can purchase tickets to the online version, which will take place on September 10th-12th.
OpenAPI Specification in Fabric
Microsoft now allows you to generate an OpenAPI spec from your Data Functions in Fabric. If you don't know what Fabric is, it's basically a suite of tools for working with data, and think of User Functions like Lambdas for taking actions on that data. With the ability to generate an OpenAPI spec, you easily generate client applications to trigger your functions via a REST API call.
From our Community
Articles written and shared in our free Slack community.
Congress API
For our American readers, did you know that there is a REST API for information on Congress? Can not believe I missed this one for our Civic-themed newsletter a while back. The API provides details on Bills, members of Congress, and more. Mike Bifuclo also shared an MCP server version with me this week.
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✌️ Until next time,
Alexander, Phil & Mike
