Ask HN: What are the not-so obvious things to consider while API integration?
I have worked with a few vendors to integrate with their API. Some things that need to be considered:<p>1. Do they provide an easy way to create a sandbox&#x2F;staging&#x2F;test&#x2F;dev environment ? Good example: Stripe. Really bad example: Paypal. Why ? Well, for starters, you need to create a completely separate account just to get a sandbox env in paypal. Then there is no guarantee that sandbox is identical to production in terms of ability to build and test.<p>2. What are their Rate Limits ? Some APIs are well designed but have terrible rate limits.<p>3. Authentication mechanism and security. How do they authenticate the API access ? This can matter for building critical apps.<p>4. Do they use REST or not ?<p>5. Do they have good documentation ? Can you do a quick test using their documentation or is it required to call their support ?<p>6. Do they have good support ?<p>7. Do they version their API changes and are those changes backward compatible ?<p>I am sure there are more but these are some good ones to start with.