Video and slides synchronized, mp3 and slide download available at URL http://bit.ly/2c25d5K. Stefanie Schirmer talks about the case study of building an API-first architecture at Etsy. She talks about what problems prompted this drastic change, the new tools they had to build to be able to work with the new system and what mistakes they made along the way. Filmed at qconnewyork.com. Stefanie Schirmer is a Software Engineer at Etsy. In Etsy's core platform team she is working on the API that connects the community of buyers and sellers across different devices.

1. API-FirstArchitecture
TransformationatEtsy
StefanieSchirmer
@linse

2. InfoQ.com: News & Community Site
• 750,000 unique visitors/month
• Published in 4 languages (English, Chinese, Japanese and Brazilian
Portuguese)
• Post content from our QCon conferences
• News 15-20 / week
• Articles 3-4 / week
• Presentations (videos) 12-15 / week
• Interviews 2-3 / week
• Books 1 / month
Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
etsy-api

3. Presented at QCon New York
www.qconnewyork.com
Purpose of QCon
- to empower software development by facilitating the spread of
knowledge and innovation
Strategy
- practitioner-driven conference designed for YOU: influencers of
change and innovation in your teams
- speakers and topics driving the evolution and innovation
- connecting and catalyzing the influencers and innovators
Highlights
- attended by more than 12,000 delegates since 2007
- held in 9 cities worldwide

5. Firstproblem

6. #Consumers
publicweb:PHP&JavaScript
administrativeapps
infrastructure
mobileapps

7. …emergingtrendinca.2013:
APIfirst
development

8. Secondproblem

9. Performance
timetodevice
non-concurrentPHP

10. Shapingour
mentalmodel

11. keepitREST(asinv2)
services
declarationofendpointsincode
inputvalidation
Ideaswekept

12. decoupleendpointsfromframework
auto-generateroutes,clients:PHP,JS
meta-endpointsthatconsumeourAPI
Newideas

13. meta-endpointsthatconsumeourAPI
decoupleendpointsfromframework
auto-generateroutes,clients:PHP,JS
Newideas

14. cURL

20. Howwebuiltit

21. EtsyAPIPerspectives

22. https://www.etsy.com/api/v3/ajax/public/teams
/member/
/shop/
/admin/
/infrastructure/
/application/

23. EtsyAPIServices

24. Ajax
Atlas
Internal
EtsyApps
OpenAPI
DataFeeds
…

25. Examplerequest

28. shopupdates
favorites
picksforyou
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
shopexplore
fromblog

29. shopupdates
favorites
picksforyou
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
shopexplore
fromblog
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
storycard
storycard
listingcard
listingcard
shopcard
shopcard
listingcard
…

30. shopupdates
favorites
picksforyou
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
shopexplore
fromblog
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
storycard
storycard
listingcard
listingcard
shopcard
shopcard
listingcard
…Web API

31. Threetiers

32. bespokehomepage
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
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storycard
listingcard
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shopcard
listingcard
…

33. bespokehomepage
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
storycard
storycard
listingcard
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shopcard
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…
bespoke

34. bespokehomepage
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
storycard
storycard
listingcard
listingcard
shopcard
shopcard
listingcard
…
bespoke concurrent

35. bespokehomepage
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
storycard
storycard
listingcard
listingcard
shopcard
shopcard
listingcard
…
bespoke concurrent component

36. bespokehomepage
favorites
favoriteshops
friendsactivity
fromblog featuredshop
storycard
storycard
listingcard
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shopcard
shopcard
listingcard
…
bespoke concurrent component

37. Językdziedzinowy
DSLofEtsyendpoints
domänenspezifischeSprachevon
Endpunkten langagedédié
‫دامنه‬‫به‬‫مختص‬‫زبان‬

38. route()
desc()
resultType()
handle($client, $input, $response)
required

39. declareInput($input)
includedServices()
cacheTtlSeconds()
optional

40. Validationofinput

41. Outputtypes

42. Tooling:
Routecompiler&
Auto-clientgeneration
https://www.etsy.com/listing/192043815/1880s-vintage-toolbox-full-of-tools

43. Operations:
Architectureimplications

44. PHP:
shortlived
singlethreaded
sharednothing

45. painpointofsharednothing:
bootstrap

46. Problem:
PHPtimetorequest

47. Experiment:
HHVM

49. HHVM
Average Response Time
12 Hour
PHP5/Zend
Average Response Time
12 Hour

50. Balancingload
Problem:
oncluster

51. Wherewouldn’t
thiswork?

52. Operations:
Tooling

53. Tooling:
CrossStitch
https://www.etsy.com/listing/192043815/1880s-vintage-toolbox-full-of-tools

55. <someserver>

56. Tooling:
Fanout-Manager
https://www.etsy.com/listing/192043815/1880s-vintage-toolbox-full-of-tools

57. Tooling:
datafindr
https://www.etsy.com/listing/192043815/1880s-vintage-toolbox-full-of-tools

59. Tooling:(wanted)
Identifyunusedendpoints
Tooling:(wanted)
Identifyunusedendpoints
https://www.etsy.com/listing/192043815/1880s-vintage-toolbox-full-of-tools

60. Developeradoption

61. Howdidwe“sell”it?

62. ..toofasttokeepup!

63. Whitespace
getsfilledwithcode

64. Documentation!!
https://www.etsy.com/listing/275337876/eclectic-elements-documentation-half

65. Pocketsofpatterns

66. sbirksted: wants contract between
set of items an endpoint will return,
set of items that the app knows how to format. jdonato: code organization: compiler in same
space as endpoints ಠ_ಠ
stan: we can compose endpoints, but for composable views we
still have to repeat things.
Can we lift composability into the view?
cconstable: can we mock a typed resource?
Can we automatically traverse it?
kgessner: unsample API type errors and make
them more prominent to enforce guarantees.

67. Trust+Guidance

68. Workin
progress

69. 3rdparty?
Versioning?
ACI?
Caching?
Edge?

70. Conclusion

71. Whatdidwelearn?

72. Whatdidwelearn?
Didwesucceed?

73. “Wedesperatelyneedtofigureoutaschemefor
allowingconcurrencyorelsewe'regoingtohave
performanceproblemsforever.”
-AndrewMorrison(Etsy)

74. “Wedesperatelyneedtofigureoutaschemefor
allowingconcurrencyorelsewe'regoingtohave
performanceproblemsforever.”
-AndrewMorrison(Etsy)✓

75. Wherewearenow:
Responsibility
divisionbetween
deviceand server

76. Thankyou<3
I’mStefanieSchirmer
@linse

77. Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
https://www.infoq.com/presentations/
etsy-api