3 ms·

CloudRail – A Universal API for Stripe, Facebook, Slack, Dropbox, Twilio and More

8 points by kwrt 11y ago

thinkingkong 11y ago
Hey guys, Hope someone from CloudRail is here. I'm not quite sure what problem this is trying to solve. Do you have an example of where CloudRail would save me time, or complexity with an integration? From what I can see, it just looks like a wrapper sitting in top of other APIs.
- kwrt 11y ago
  The idea is a single API for multiple services, so actually yes kind of a wrapper. So instead of getting familiar with different APIs and integrating multiple SDKs you can use the config tool to create a custom API which does exactly what you need. Eg "I need a function to upload a file to Dropbox, a function to like a page on Facebook and one to switch on the Philips Hue light". After integrating the CloudRail SDK, you'll see exactly that endpoint, even with you individual naming. So just one manual to read, one SDK to integrate and maintain.
jefflinwood 11y ago
This seems more complicated than just using the original APIs, as none of the sample applications or StackOverflow questions you might find with a quick Google (for instance, creating a capability token with Twilio) would apply any more. As thinkingkong asked, what's the use case?
- kwrt 11y ago
  Did you try it? I think it makes it way easier if you need to integrate more than one API. But open for your opinions or suggestions how to improve it. The solution has just been launched, so yes there are not many tutorials out there. Use case is if you need to integrate more than one API in your app.
  - jefflinwood 11y ago
    I was just trying to figure out what problem developers had that you were trying to solve. From your web site, it appears that your thesis is that (some) developers have a problem using multiple API's from multiple providers, and you are offering an integrated approach to make their lives easier.
    - kwrt 11y ago
      That's right. We've heard from developers that they spend over 50% of their development time for an ordanary app to integrate other services via APIs. CloudRail tries to reduce that significantly. 1 API (with some configuration) instead of N APIs for N services.
tomasien 11y ago
I can see this getting useful if you either are integrating unnecessarily complex APIs or a massive number of fairly simple APIs. Neither Slack nor Facebook qualify, but I'm assuming this company is betting on the growth of the IoT (which will likely fall into the "lots of simple APIs" category).
- kwrt 11y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. You are absolutely right. Currently CloudRail is more tending to simple APIs and a massive number. This is mainly caused by the fact that actually everybody can add services to the system. So most of the connected services are created and maintained by the community or even the API provider itself. Result is of course more simple APIs.

8 points by kwrt 11y ago

Hey guys, Hope someone from CloudRail is here. I'm not quite sure what problem this is trying to solve. Do you have an example of where CloudRail would save me time, or complexity with an integration? From what I can see, it just looks like a wrapper sitting in top of other APIs.

kwrt 11y ago
The idea is a single API for multiple services, so actually yes kind of a wrapper. So instead of getting familiar with different APIs and integrating multiple SDKs you can use the config tool to create a custom API which does exactly what you need. Eg "I need a function to upload a file to Dropbox, a function to like a page on Facebook and one to switch on the Philips Hue light". After integrating the CloudRail SDK, you'll see exactly that endpoint, even with you individual naming. So just one manual to read, one SDK to integrate and maintain.

jefflinwood 11y ago

This seems more complicated than just using the original APIs, as none of the sample applications or StackOverflow questions you might find with a quick Google (for instance, creating a capability token with Twilio) would apply any more. As thinkingkong asked, what's the use case?

kwrt 11y ago
Did you try it? I think it makes it way easier if you need to integrate more than one API. But open for your opinions or suggestions how to improve it. The solution has just been launched, so yes there are not many tutorials out there. Use case is if you need to integrate more than one API in your app.
- jefflinwood 11y ago
  I was just trying to figure out what problem developers had that you were trying to solve. From your web site, it appears that your thesis is that (some) developers have a problem using multiple API's from multiple providers, and you are offering an integrated approach to make their lives easier.
  - kwrt 11y ago
    That's right. We've heard from developers that they spend over 50% of their development time for an ordanary app to integrate other services via APIs. CloudRail tries to reduce that significantly. 1 API (with some configuration) instead of N APIs for N services.

tomasien 11y ago

I can see this getting useful if you either are integrating unnecessarily complex APIs or a massive number of fairly simple APIs. Neither Slack nor Facebook qualify, but I'm assuming this company is betting on the growth of the IoT (which will likely fall into the "lots of simple APIs" category).

kwrt 11y ago
Thanks for the feedback. You are absolutely right. Currently CloudRail is more tending to simple APIs and a massive number. This is mainly caused by the fact that actually everybody can add services to the system. So most of the connected services are created and maintained by the community or even the API provider itself. Result is of course more simple APIs.