Talking to other systems.
WHAT AN API CALL INVOLVES
Sending a request to a URL, and receiving a response.
WHAT TO USE
An established HTTP library rather than low-level facilities.
WHAT TO ALWAYS DO
Check the response status before using the content Set a timeout Handle failure
THE TIMEOUT POINT
Without one, a request can hang indefinitely and stop your program.
Always set it.
WHAT TO HANDLE
Network failures Unexpected status codes Responses that are not the format you expected Rate limits
RATE LIMITS
Most services limit how often you may call them.
Respect them, and handle the response when you exceed one.
WHAT TO DO ON FAILURE
Retry, with an increasing delay, for temporary failures.
Not for failures that will not resolve.
WHAT TO KEEP OUT OF CODE
API keys and credentials.
Read them from the environment.
WHAT TO LOG
Enough to diagnose a failure, without logging credentials.
WHAT TO VALIDATE
The response structure, before relying on it.
