117: APIs: Oofda! with Eric Caron of Caribou Coffee

If the term “API,” has you uttering "Oofda", this episode is for you.

Eric Caron, Senior Director of Digital Experience at Caribou Coffee, is back to talk nerdy with us about APIs.

To get to the very core of what an API is, Eric uses examples of APIs we use everyday (and probably never realized). He explains why APIs need good documentation, why an API should (and shouldn’t) be public, and why an API management solution should be utilized.

If you’re looking to learn more about APIs after listening to this episode, or want to teach others about APIs, don’t miss the links in our show notes where Eric has provided incredible resources.

In this episode, you will learn:

• The inspiration behind our “Oofda!” series
• What an API-first mentality is
• Why APIs should have good documentation
• Reasons to have a public API
• Common misconceptions of APIs
• Why you should look at how to pull data out of an API before pushing data into one
• Why you shouldn’t build your own API security
• Recommendations for teaching kids APIs
• Who one of the best resources is for learning APIs (the answer might surprise you)

This episode is brought to you by The Jed Mahonis Group, where we make sense of mobile app development with our non-technical approach to building custom mobile software solutions. Learn more at https://jmg.mn.

Recorded February 23, 2022 | Edited by Jordan Daoust | Produced by Jenny Karkowski

Show Links

Eric Caron’s website | https://ericcaron.com/

Eric Caron’s first appearance on Constant Variables | Startup Mentality, API Management, and Corporate Apps with Eric Caron of Caribou Coffee

Kin Lane's site | https://apievangelist.com/

Government API design guidelines that Eric loves | https://github.com/18F/api-standards

API client that Eric likes | https://insomnia.rest/

Open source project giving new life to old exercise equipment | https://github.com/ptx2/gymnasticon

Cool tool for mocking APIs | https://apimocha.com/

Great tool for documenting APIs | https://github.com/slatedocs/slate

Awesome API list | https://github.com/n0shake/Public-APIs

Great list of API tools | https://github.com/Kikobeats/awesome-api

Also if anyone is curious, Eric’s rowing machine game is at https://github.com/ecaron/home-rower-game & he attached a picture of his kid trying it out.

Faker | https://fakerjs.dev/

analytics.usa.gov/ | https://analytics.usa.gov/

Chat with The Jed Mahonis Group | https://jmg.mn

Rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts | https://constantvariables.co/review

Episode Transcript:

Coming soon!