API Development
Debugging distributed systems is notoriously challenging, especially when API calls traverse multiple services. API call tracing is essential for identifying bottlenecks in distributed systems, diagnosing errors, and optimizing system performance.
In distributed architectures, developers often rely on monitoring tools or comprehensive out-of-the-box debugging solutions. Each approach has advantages and disadvantages. This article focuses on the critical role of API call tracing and explores how it can streamline debugging in complex systems.
We will dive into the importance of tracing API calls, share practical implementation techniques, and outline best practices to simplify debugging in distributed environments, helping you turn a daunting task into a manageable one. Finally, we’ll look at the latest advancements in API development that are changing the game for API call tracing. A new approach to mocking and debugging in a dedicated API development environment empowers restful API developers with the resources they need to test API endpoints, verify response times, and avoid bad requests before they happen.
January 22, 2025 | 10 min read
API Development
In any competitive field, winning depends as much on an excellent strategy as it does on well-chosen and executed tactics. For those of us in modern software engineering, "API-first" earned the top spot in many tech leaders' minds as the go-to strategy for efficient innovation.
What the buzz neglected to acknowledge was the "how" of this glorious approach. What does API-first mean to the developers who are actually doing the work to make it real. Well, we have a theory that an "endpoint-first" approach is the critical tactical piece that has been missing from these conversations. Let's delve into it.
“Playing out of the back” is a widely used strategy in modern soccer. Teams try to build offensive possessions starting from the defensive third of the field. But if your defenders only practice playing long balls, they won’t be able to deliver on the vision. They must develop new tactics — specific, practical skills suited to the strategy.
January 21, 2025 | 21 min read
API Development
Let's say you're conducting an API test. In this process, you'll be running through a series of requests just to ensure that everything functions as expected. You've tested each part — every request, response, and piece of data — and everything looks good individually. But when you bring it all together — the requests interacting with various services, the data flowing through different components, and the responses returning from multiple sources — things start to fall apart.
Some responses are slow, others are missing crucial data, and suddenly, the system isn't behaving as you expected. You're left wondering where it all went wrong.
Without a proper approach to handling these challenges, you could spend hours, or even days, trying to trace and fix the issues. This is where relying on end-to-end API testing becomes invaluable because it not only simplifies the testing process but also helps you pinpoint and fix issues more efficiently.
January 13, 2025 | 16 min read
API Development
Developing and testing APIs against live public api endpoints can introduce delays, dependencies, and risks that slow down your delivery pipeline. With Blackbird's API Mocking capabilities, you can simulate real-world API behavior, enabling faster iteration, independent testing, and seamless integration.
Mocking APIs in Blackbird is fast, and our newest enhancement lets you mock against popular API specs instantly, either in your browser or with the Blackbird CLI. Let’s review an example of when you would want to mock against a popular public API.
Adding an AI Chatbot using OpenAI API
Let’s say you are a developer working on the frontend code for a fintech company that specializes in helping you create healthy spending habits, including budgeting for your goals. You’ve been tasked with creating an interactive AI chatbot that helps users develop a budget based on their spending habits. To do this, you have decided to integrate OpenAI’s API into your product.
January 9, 2025 | 7 min read
API Development
Now three months post launch—Ambassador’s Blackbird API Development Platform is taking API development to new heights with two powerful enhancements designed to supercharge your workflow.
First, broaden your horizons with expanded language and framework support, enabling you to generate boilerplate code across a vast range of technologies—from Python and Go to C#, Kotlin, and more. With seamless OpenAPI integration, the enhanced code generator feature slashes repetitive tasks and lets you focus on building robust APIs in the stack of your choice.
We also added a Chaos mode to mocking, which will help you uncover hidden bugs by testing how your system handles unexpected failures or delays. In Chaos mode, you can now easily simulate real-world scenarios for your mock API endpoints.
January 6, 2025 | 5 min read
API Development
Traditional development environments frequently face difficulties such as dependency conflicts, unreliable deployment methods, and lengthy setup periods, which can reduce productivity and delay time-to-market. To solve these difficulties, many development teams are adopting container-based development environments.
Containers combine an application and its dependencies into a single, lightweight entity that can operate consistently across several computing environments. This encapsulation guarantees that programs perform reliably across multiple environments, including a developer's local machine, a staging server, and production. Organizations that use a container-first approach can improve team cooperation, minimize defects, and streamline development workflows.
In this article, we will look at why container-based development environments are transforming the software industry. We'll look at their components, emphasize their benefits, and offer actionable suggestions for improving your process. Finally, we'll talk about how containers will affect the future of development and provide a powerful platform to help you get started.
January 3, 2025 | 23 min read
