Recently, API products company Apigee rolled out Apigee To-Go, a free tool for building an API console, classing it up with a slick UI, and embedding it wherever your developers are.
This new tool gives developers a DIY approach to offering brand-cohesive, usable API interfaces. Devs can create customized API Consoles themselves, skin the consoles to match existing branding, and then embed the console on their own sites. And all of these sweet features are free of charge.
Altogether, Apigee says their consoles can help you get your third-party devs from exploring the code to working with the code much faster. And all it takes from you, the platform provider, is three relatively simple steps: Describe the API, create the console’s look and feel, and embed the console using iFrame.
Web companies releasing APIs is a huge part of the developer ecosystem right now.
At Mashable, we preach about the necessity of APIs and laud innovative ones. And when possible, we try to spread the good word about tools for building APIs.
Apigee’s API Console made its debut last year; it was the company’s attempt to restructure how devs learn their way around a new API. The console, as Apigee staffer Shanley Kane writes, “lets developers view the full surface area of an API, authenticate in seconds, easily view API requests and responses, dig into errors and share their results.”
The consoles also let devs share snapshots of a request/response pair; Kane says this feature “makes debugging social and facilitates communication between the API team and its developers.”
Apigee’s custom-made consoles are used by companies like Twitter, Facebook and Salesforce. Apigee To-Go is the company’s way of giving DIY console-creation tools to developers to use on their own projects and sites.
Already, Etsy, Paypal and SoundCloud are using Apigee To-Go-built consoles for their own APIs.
Here’s a look at SoundCloud’s API console:
Other features include handling OAuth 1.0 and 2.0 and basic authentication, because, as Kane writes, “Authentication schemes like OAuth slow developers down.”
Let us know what you think of this product — and API consoles in general — in the comments. Will you be giving Apigee To-Go a shot?
Image based on a photo from iStockphoto user alxpin
More About: api, api console, apigee, developers
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