API3 API Integrations Report — September 2021
September shaped up to be a very productive and exciting month. This month we focused on providing resources to each provider as well as to our team. We had some snags along the way that slowed down deployments but still managed to make a ton of progress on every front. We also made some changes to some of our internal processes that are sure to make everyone’s lives easier.
Integrations
In our Bi-Weekly Community Call, we anticipated doing ~30 integrations per month. We spent the better part of August, fortifying our integration tools and training materials. This, combined with Integration Engineers becoming more familiar with API design, turned out to be catalytic and we are proud to announce that we have already hit our 3-month goal of 90 integrations in just over 2 months!
32 Providers are currently running an Airnode with the remaining 58 integrated and ready for deployment. There was a small delay in deployments at the beginning of the month because of pre-alpha bug fixes and features, but things started to pick back up towards the end of the month.
We decided in August to prioritize APIs based on their ease of integration which left us with a backlog of the more complicated APIs for September. Some APIs provide Swagger Specs, making it very easy to import and map their endpoints to our Oracle Integration Spec (OIS). For these providers, we can finish their integration in a matter of minutes. For the others, endpoints need to be mapped by hand which can be pretty tedious. The core development team has provided us with batch OIS validation functionality to ensure that mistakes are minimized.
Integrating APIs and their endpoints is usually a pretty straightforward process, but there are some cases with special requirements. For example, providers or dApps that are interested in a hackathon, or a provider that has a unique authorization/authentication model. We have been meeting with these providers regularly to discuss the best way to balance security and usability for their Airnode and the ideas they have around use-cases. Luckily, Airnode is equipped to handle a very wide range of security preferences with more options coming in future iterations.
Resources & Materials
September marked a lot of firsts for Integrations, with most of those coming in the form of resources and materials. One example being Web3 API Documentation. After their Airnode is deployed, providers are sent a Web3 API Doc template that includes all of the information a Web3 developer needs to start using a provider’s Airnode. If the API is private/monetized, the dApp developer will have to take whatever steps are necessary for the provider to grant them access. Web3 API documentation is written in Markdown, hosted by the provider, and includes references to their Web2 API documentation.
Another extremely valuable resource is the Self-Deployment Tutorial. In September we decided to prioritize and promote Airnode Self-Deployments just as much as guided deployments. The idea behind this was that we want to give providers options that fit into their very busy schedules. The tutorial contains pictures and examples to answer common questions before they arise. We have had great success with self-deployments and the tutorial has even come in handy on guided deployments.
Deployments
As easy as deploying an Airnode is, the deployment needs to be a one-size-fits-all procedure. This means any provider on any operating system that uses any text editor and any command-line terminal should be able to deploy their Airnode using the same steps. We have been working closely with the core dev team on changes that need to be made to the documentation. Our experience with providers has also been valuable to the Marketing team and the ChainAPI team in designing a good UX/UI for API3 Partnerships.
Another small but effective improvement has been streamlining the process for requesting an Airnode deployment. By automating the scheduling, preparation, and information relay processes, we can free up resources on our end and be sure that providers have everything they need to deploy when the time comes. This may seem like a small change but we believe that to clear up our biggest bottleneck, we need to understand and work with providers’ already busy schedules. This is where automation comes in handy. Once the integration is done and ready to be deployed, the provider can simply choose between guided or self-deploying their Airnode.
Next Month
The API Integration team has some plans for the final month of the cycle:
- Proofs-of-Concept — We will be working with a lot of providers that will want to start setting users up right away. It is important that we can explain all of the details that come with the user management flow for their new Airnode.
- Analytics — Data is becoming more important to the Marketing team and ChainAPI team in their design decisions. The API3 community is also interested in statistics surrounding integrations.
- Testing — We will be testing deployed Airnodes that we can access, making example API requests a relaying the results to providers.
September has been a fruitful month for our team. We are seeing more complete integrations with providers having everything they need to start working with dApp developers. We understand the integrations pipeline well enough to automate some of the tasks, making things easier than ever for both the providers and our team. We are seeing the first editions of authentication flows using the features available in pre-alpha Airnode. In a matter of 2 months, we managed to integrate almost 100 APIs. October is when we put the finishing touches on these integrations and gear up for all of the releases coming from the Core Development team!
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