Using an API like a developer

By Tom Johnson / @tomjohnson
idratherbewriting.com

Slides available at
idratherbewriting.com/slides/using_api_like_developer/

Dev scenario: Retrieve weather info

Simple implementation

Fancy implementation

Choosing a weather API

Activity 2a: Explore the OpenWeatherMap API

Activity 2b: Get OpenWeatherMap authorization keys

Submitting requests

Activity 2c: Make requests with Postman

curl


curl --request GET "https://api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/weather?zip=95050&units=imperial&appid=APIKEY"

cURL commands

Command	Description
`--location`	Submits request to redirect
`-X, --request`	The HTTP method to use
`-i, --include`	Include response headers
`-d, --data`	Include data to post
`-H, --header`	Submit header
`@filename`	Load content from a file

Analyze responses

JSON objects:


    {
    "key1":"value1",
    "key2":"value2"
    }

JSON arrays:


    ["first", "second", "third"]

Activity 2d: Make requests with curl

Log the response to the console

Use dot notation to access values

Temperature:


                response.main.temp

Wind speed:


    response.wind.speed

Wind direction:


response.wind.deg

Activity 2e: Make an API request on a web page

Questions?