Constant Contact Provides a Good Blueprint for an API Getting Started Page
When it comes to getting users to hit the ground running with your API, it's hard to do better than Constant Contact. See what elements ought to go into a good page.
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I was going through the getting started pages for the APIs that I keep an eye on, pulling together an outline of what I'd consider to be some of the best elements across all the API providers. Then I came across the getting started page from Constant Contact, and I'd say they win for being the clearest and most concise API getting started page of them all.
Constant Contact's approach to their getting started page has given me a good start for my outline, including essential links to set up your account, create a new application, and get your keys. Constant Contact also provides required documentation, an API tester, and supporting code libraries. Additionally, they encourage you to certify your integration as a partner and get published in their integration marketplace — providing a pretty well thought out getting started page in my opinion.
I am going to take what I've learned here and craft a sample getting started page for my minimum viable API portal definition. I'm sure some of you are snickering at me paying attention to API operations at this level of detail, but I wouldn't underestimate the ability of a well-crafted API getting started page to reduce friction with developers. I want to give API providers with a simple template they can follow when publishing a getting started page.
With the next release of my API portal, I'll have a good example of a getting started page, which will be heavily influenced by Constant Contactt.
Topics:
operations,
api,
page,
portal
Published at DZone with permission of Kin Lane, DZone MVB. See the original article here.
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