Is it a good idea to build out a no-code platform for an API
Is it a good idea to build out a no-code platform for an API
I currently have an API that is gaining traction. I would like to market towards people that are able to use APIs, however there is a technical barrier when It comes to requesting an endpoint, saving data, building a script around that, etc.
Should I build a web application that allows non-technical users to access the data from the API? Or, Is that a waste of time for the effort put in?
It's a bit of a vague question, generally an API is backend - and you're kinda asking "should I make a frontend for this?" - hard to tell without context...
If you just want a "semi-developer-ish" frontend, you could look into just making an OpenAPI spec for it, and using something like Swagger as a frontend. Then at least you have some kind of GUI
7Currently I have a documentation page that points users to the endpoints. I also have the fastapi OpenAPI documentation available for users.
For what im doing it will be a mixture of what OpenAPI does with the requests directly in the documentation and the ability to create "bots" around it for non-technical users like airtable.
1
A querying/dashboard layer for product people to easily interact with - sure. Calling it a no-code solution - don’t do that.
4A querying/dashboard layer for product people to easily interact with - sure. Calling it a no-code solution - don’t do that.
Sorry about that, I simply assumed that was the terminology. Thank you for the feedback, I will most likely create a dashboard for those users.
2Well, terminology is to call scam promising that even a cat will be able to build a rocket with UI blocks "no-code".
Since using "no-code" usually ends up with writing code (usually in JavaScript, afaik), it would be more honest to not call it that, anyway, scammy promises aside
1
Dunno what the API is like, but if you document it, generate an openapi yaml and provide an interface based upon that (your app framework probably supports it), it'll be easier for people to test with an API key or on a demo instance with a public API key.
Also you van build integrations for actual no code platforms like N8N or zapier. They might even be able to generate an integration for you from an OpenAPI spec.
3