DEV Community: ˗ˏˋ Ramy ˎˊ˗

3 APIs to build with this weekend

˗ˏˋ Ramy ˎˊ˗ — Fri, 23 Oct 2020 11:29:07 +0000

APIs are fun to tinker with while learning and can also save you huge amounts of time while building new products or features.

Every week I scour the web for new and interesting APIs. Here are 3 I found recently:

Smart Reply API

This API essentially auto creates replies to messages for you. You give it a message (text message, comment, email, etc.) and it generates a reply for you. If you've use Gmail, you'll likely have seen a Smart Reply type feature in action already.

// Example request and response

// GET request with these params
{
    "text": "I love your shirt.",
    "domain": "socialmedia",
    "language": "en",
    "limit": "1"
}

// Response
{
    4 items
        "generationId": 10 "language": "en"
    "smartReplies": [1 item
        0: {
            2 items "reply": "Thanks! It's from J. Crew!"
            "score": 0.9463478434695229
        }
    ]
    "text": "I love your shirt."
}

Sendblue

This simple API essentially lets you send iMessages. If you try sending to a number that doesn't support iMessage, it's sent as a regular SMS.

// Example request and response

// POST request with these params
{
    number: '+19998887777',
    content: 'Hello world!',
    statusCallback: 'https://example.com/message-status/1234abcd',
}

// Posted to the callback URL
{
    "accountEmail": "support@sendblue.co",
        "content": "Hello world!",
        "is_outbound": true,
        "status": "DELIVERED",
        "error_code": null,
        "error_message": null,
        "message_handle": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxx",
        "date_sent": "2020-09-10T06:15:05.962Z",
        "date_updated": "2020-09-10T06:15:14.115Z",
        "from_number": "+15122164639",
        "number": "+19998887777",
        "to_number": "+19998887777",
        "was_downgraded": false,
        "plan": "blue"
    }

SerpApi

This API returns Google search results as JSON. The powerful part is that it lets you specify which countries to return the search results from.

// Example request and response

// GET request with these params
{
    q: "Coffee",
    location: "Austin, Texas, United States",
    hl: "en",
    gl: "us",
    google_domain: "google.com",
    api_key: "secret_api_key"
}

// Response
{
    "search_metadata": {
        "id": "5f74b763ca38dc4c78553613",
        "status": "Success",
        "json_endpoint": "https://serpapi.com/searches/22885aeb222d98c2/5f74b763ca38dc4c78553613.json",
        "created_at": "2020-09-30 16:50:43 UTC",
        "processed_at": "2020-09-30 16:50:43 UTC",
        "google_url": "https://www.google.com/search?q=Coffee&oq=Coffee&uule=w+CAIQICIaQXVzdGluLFRleGFzLFVuaXRlZCBTdGF0ZXM&hl=en&gl=us&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8",
        "raw_html_file": "https://serpapi.com/searches/22885aeb222d98c2/5f74b763ca38dc4c78553613.html",
        "total_time_taken": 2.76
    },
    "search_parameters": {
        "engine": "google",
        "q": "Coffee",
        "location_requested": "Austin, Texas, United States",
        "location_used": "Austin,Texas,United States",
        "google_domain": "google.com",
        "hl": "en",
        "gl": "us",
        "device": "desktop"
    },
    "search_information": {
        "organic_results_state": "Results for exact spelling",
        "total_results": 3090000000,
        "time_taken_displayed": 0.88,
        "query_displayed": "Coffee"
    },
    "local_map": {
        "link": "https://www.google.com/search?gl=us&hl=en&q=Coffee&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rldoc=1&rlha=0&rllag=30267376,-97742553,138&tbm=lcl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwip4-2cq5HsAhVvkuAKHVHlCaEQtgN6BAgdEAc",
        "gps_coordinates": {
            "latitude": 30.267376,
            "longitude":
                -97.742553,
            "altitude": 138
        }
    },
    "local_results": {
        "more_locations_link": "https://www.google.com/search?gl=us&hl=en&q=Coffee&npsic=0&rflfq=1&rldoc=1&rlha=0&rllag=30267376,-97742553,138&tbm=lcl&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwip4-2cq5HsAhVvkuAKHVHlCaEQjGp6BAgdEFA",
        "places": [{
                "position": 1,
                "title": "Starbucks",
                "place_id": "10605736027611436825",
                "lsig": "AB86z5XTJ_Io_anVBu2fU6Zaqu3b",
                "place_id_search": "https://serpapi.com/search.json?device=desktop&engine=google&gl=us&google_domain=google.com&hl=en&location=Austin%2C+Texas%2C+United+States&lsig=AB86z5XTJ_Io_anVBu2fU6Zaqu3b&ludocid=10605736027611436825&q=Coffee&tbm=lcl",
                "rating": 4.1,
                "reviews": 480,
                "price": "$$",
                "type": "Coffee shop",
                "address": "600 Congress Ave Ste. G-270",
                "thumbnail": ,
                "service_options": {
                    "dine_in": false,
                    "takeout": true,
                    "delivery": true
                },
                "gps_coordinates": {
                    "latitude": 30.268272,
                    "longitude":
                        -97.74294
                }
            },
            {
                "position": 2,
                "title": "Houndstooth Coffee",
                "place_id": "11265938073076301333",
                "lsig": "AB86z5Vdw6C2pJpM0xQ6JUx2KONU",
                "place_id_search": "https://serpapi.com/search.json?device=desktop&engine=google&gl=us&google_domain=google.com&hl=en&location=Austin%2C+Texas%2C+United+States&lsig=AB86z5Vdw6C2pJpM0xQ6JUx2KONU&ludocid=11265938073076301333&q=Coffee&tbm=lcl",
                "rating": 4.6,
                "reviews": 703,
                "price": "$$",
                "type": "Coffee shop",
                "address": "401 Congress Ave #100c · In Frost Bank Tower",
                "thumbnail": ,
                "service_options": {
                    "dine_in": false,
                    "takeout": true,
                    "delivery": false
                },
                "gps_coordinates": {
                    "latitude": 30.26618,
                    "longitude":
                        -97.742905
                }
            }

// ...... (too long to share the full response, but you get the point)

I'm not affiliated with any of these APIs, but I have started a newsletter where I share new & interesting APIs I come across. If you've recently come across an API that other developers would find interesting, please let me know

3 more APIs to build with this week

˗ˏˋ Ramy ˎˊ˗ — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 16:48:40 +0000

APIs are fun to tinker with while learning and can also save you huge amounts of time while building new products or features.

Every week I scour the web for new and interesting APIs. Here's what I've found this week:

Swell - This API lets you create e-commerce sites, apps, widgets, or any sort of online storefront. It's essentially a "headless" e-commerce builder that lets you build a custom e-commerce experience without having to rebuild the basics, like checkout, abandoned cart emails etc.

Vector Express - This free API lets you convert vector files. If you want to display .eps files online, for example, you could use this API to convert them to SVGs. Useful for building some sort of online marketplace for vectors or streamlining design workflows.

Improve MX API - This API lets you automate email domain & alias creation. You could use this for testing transactional emails, or to make a disposable email service or a Chrome extension that generate email aliases for every service you sign up for, which would make it super easy to unsubscribe.

I'm not affiliated with any of these APIs, but I have started a newsletter where I share new & interesting APIs I come across.

If you've recently come across an API that other developers would find interesting, please let me know in the comments 👇🏼

3 interesting APIs to build with this week

˗ˏˋ Ramy ˎˊ˗ — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 11:48:52 +0000

APIs are fun to tinker with while learning and can also save you huge amounts of time while building new products or features.

Here are some I found last week, with some ideas of how you could use them

Bannerbear - This API lets you generate unlimited variations of images & videos based on templates you designed ahead of time. There are so many ways you could use this to streamline design processes, such as automating OG images on a blog or e-commerce site, but what’s more interesting to me is that there are whole products that can be built with this.

For example, it could be used to create a Chrome extension that lets people easily generate quote images to share on Instagram while they browse the web. The new video API is also super interesting and I’m sure there are loads of use cases I haven’t even thought of.

Waitlist API - This simple API does what it says on the tin. It makes it easy to create a waitlist with a referral system, so you can create some buzz about a product or feature before launching. It handles the leaderboard/referral link type stuff so you can get your waiting list up and running without having to re-invent the wheel.

Oil Price API - Another API that does what it says on the tin - it gives you live & historical oil prices. You can use this to set Oil price alerts or look for patterns between oil price fluctuations and changes in other data sets (Crypto, Flight prices, etc).