Apigee-to-Go: Extending the Console Metaphor and the Concept of the Social Object

Apigee is extending its console to be integrated into a provider’s Web framework.

SoundCloud, PayPal and LinkedIn have been the first to integrate the Apigee service that lets developers explore an API from within the providers development environment and share it as a social object.

Apigee-to-Go is an iFrame of the Apigee console that embeds into the provider’s CSS, allowing the site to be skinned and in the process make the experience transparent to the user.

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According to a blog post by Apigee’s Shanley Kane, developers using the provider’s service may:

• View the full surface area of an API.
• Authenticate through OAuth.
• View API requests and responses.
• Explore errors and share their results.

Here’s what it looks like on SoundCloud:

The service caches a request, saves it as a snapshot and provides it as a link for the user. For example, a developer might be exploring the Twitter API.They may want share what is being viewed once the API is reached through Apigee.

The link may be shared in any manner. It may be posted on Twitter or to a community such as GitHub. It’s up to the developer.

Apigee’s Sam Ramji says they are influenced by the embed practices developed by companies such as YouTube and Slideshare to create what Apigee’s Marsh Gardiner calls a “social object.”

I like the concept of a social object. It extends the metaphor for commerce. A social object gives providers the power to scale a sharing capability, which in turn can speed development. The embeddable object creates value when it is shared.

Today’s emerging API infrastructure is a core component of new commerce that is turning information into a fluid currency with its own value that is having effects on innovation, progress and the state of the economy.

Companies such as Apigee, Mashery and Layer 7 Technologies are part of an equation with deep fits into the makings of commerce and the flow of data in real-time.

There are many examples of this new commerce. Apigee-to-Go shows the value of providing a framework for speeding communication to quicken the development of application within a developer framework.

Disclosure: Mashery is a ReadWriteWeb sponsor.

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