Author Archives: Michael Pratt

About Michael Pratt

Michael Pratt is a Developer Evangelist and Platform Engineer at Bazaarvoice in Austin, Texas. By day he works with colleagues developing API platforms, and by night he promotes standards-based APIs.

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HTTP/2.0 Initial Draft Released

The first implementable draft of HTTP/2.0 was released on July 8th by the HTTPbis working group of the IETF. The 2.0 version of HTTP is based on the SPDY protocol developed by Google — in fact, the initial draft was a copy of the SPDY specification as a base for diffs.

Photo by Jeffrey Beall

HTTP/2.0 is intended as an alternative to HTTP/1.1, rather than deprecating the old version. There is good reason for this: The new version feels similar to the old, but there are important differences designed to enable more efficient network communication.

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APIDays San Francisco

At the conclusion of the first API Days San Francisco, one thing is clear above all else: APIs are in. Huge growth in the startup space developing APIs and major acquisitions amongst the larger companies are a great indicator of a burgeoning API ecosystem. Despite a wide variety of opinions and philosophies in the speaking arrangement capable of satisfying any developers thirst for insight, one common theme prevailed: APIs are a critical component of any modern development strategy.

API Economy Panel – Image by Michael Pratt

Rather than providing a simple recap, let’s touch on a few of the most important and emerging topics discussed.

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The Accept Header: A Quick Primer

When developing an API, one of the first critical decisions every developer must face is that of Content Type. In this day and age most APIs return one or both of JSON or XML.

photo by Sean Svadilfari

Some APIs get away with one, and that’s fine, but to improve the UX of your API, you should allow the requestor to determine what data type is best for them. If you’ve read the post on API Content Negotiation, you’ll know the best way to approach content negotiation is to follow the standards.

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