In April, we introduced our Developer Track of content at ICON14. Many of you attended to learn more about our API, developer tips and advice on how to take your creations to the next level. We also heard some great feedback on how we can improve your experience as developers on the Infusionsoft platform.
We shared a number of code examples and provided guidance on how to best leverage the Developer Center. While it is under beta, we encourage you to get comfortable with it and provide us feedback so we can improve it even more.
We’d like to discuss several points of feedback we received from all of you below.
Documentation
Largely, the feedback you shared is that life for you as a developer is not easy. We understand. We are making significant investments to improve our API, documentation and resources so you can go from prototype to production application easily. We learned that a number of you are currently using the older documentation – please consider exploring the API Docs here on the Developer Center so you can maximize your use of our API. We have also introduced an interactive I/O Docs tool to help you quickly find the information you need from an Infusionsoft account.
API Throttling
We’ve also heard some great feedback regarding the API throttling. Today, the Developer Center allows you to generate your own application-specific API authentication keys but with significantly fewer number of total calls per day. We plan to adjust and increase throttling limits to more favorably support your applications in product, but because the current usage is so low, we are unable to identify appropriate new thresholds. Here’s how you can help us identify what “production-grade” API traffic should be:
- We want developers to build their applications adopting OAuth2 for user authentication and using the API keys provided so we can measure your actual consumption of the API and provide you with better tools.
- As the need arises where you need to have your API throttling increased, we will work with you to do that. If you find that you are routinely hitting your daily limit, please email <api@infusionsoft.com> and we will review your request.
- In return for increasing these limits, we ask that you exercise all reasonable efforts to cache and store the data in your applications as to minimize the impact on system resources.
We know that there are probably additional questions about this — we’ll address this topic more in-depth in the future.
Developer Essentials
Another interesting takeaway we learned was that not everyone develops applications the same way we do. You told us that you would benefit strongly from tutorials, tips and practical advice on software development practices. For instance, we will be operating webinars where members of our development team will offer guidance on technical subjects that would benefit you.
In the coming months, we will be offering more resources available to all on our Developer Center.
Developer Feedback
Last but not least, a number of you have shared an interest in helping us shape our future developments on our API. We are intentionally focusing on the areas that need the most attention while establishing the development plan for the future. To more actively involve the developer community, we will be taking a page from the Certified Partner program and create a developer-led council on working collaboratively with our internal developers. When we have this ready, we will announce who is on this council and how they will influence the future of our API.
As always, we appreciate your feedback, suggestions and ideas to improve our API and your experience. Please continue to collaborate, share tips and solutions on our Developer Forums and Facebook Page so we can better understand your needs. Toward that end, we appreciate your patience while we create an easily understood road map of our API.