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wet-boew / wet-boew-api-standards

Possible requirements for Government of Canada APIs based on the White House standards
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Web Services such as WMS or non RESTful platforms #27

Open chrismajewski opened 10 years ago

chrismajewski commented 10 years ago

API is a wide term. An Application Programming Interface can apply to variety of endpoints that it's use is problematic.

One can query WMS services as an API, API doesn't prescribe RESTful design.

The intent of this document doesn't align with all uses of the term. "API" may be used as a buzzword to attract attention or to meet requirements to produce an "API".

So what do we do? Do we deny the term to anything that doesn't meet the requirements of this document? Do we force the issue by insisting it be wrapped to requirements outside pre-existing standards?

No solution, a question to debate.

nschonni commented 10 years ago

WMS = Web Management System? I think CMS or WCMS are more widely used terms.

There is no definition currently of what constitutes an API in the doc.

This document applies to to publicly facing application programming interfaces. This does not include content sites, which can be also be considered a type of API to some.

"Working requirements for Government of Canada (GoC) Web publicly accessible Application Programming Interfaces (API)s." since this would apply to mobile native apps or external systems as well.

StephenOTT commented 10 years ago

WMS is typically Web Mapping Service. Used typically by GIS systems. GIS REST apis are a big item to look at because they are usually tied to a "standard" for interoperability purposes to work with predefined GIS systems.

chrismajewski commented 10 years ago

This is a lesson learned from this iteration of the standard document.

The next step is to compare this general best practice for a freshly developed API to long term products that provide an API to industry standards and existing implementations of anything that can defined as an API even if not what people generally think of as an API.

It's much easier to describe proper use of a set technology, this is try to define a concept with multiple interpretations.

chrismajewski commented 10 years ago

Something for the Use Cases, can't close this today.