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Mendeley The Story of the Mendeley API Joyce  Stack  /  @MendeleyStack

World of Researchers

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Build institutional

Reputation

showcase

Impact find & win

Grants

Promote research

expand Institutional network

Fulfil

Administrative duties

Imposing researchers with many challenges & KPI’s

Doing Research But how about my PASSION?

Vision

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The Mendeley API

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BackgroundNo. You can’t have that.

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“No we can’t add more users”

“No we can’t add a column to that table”

“No we can’t do realtime sync”

“No”

Monolith

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Tackling the monolith. We’re going on a dig.

What did we find? •Different methodologies•Custom MVC framework• FIXMEs and TODOs•Spaghetti junction of code•Dead code

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BargainingMaybe we can live with it, we can cope.

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Problems

• 7 years organic growth •No independent release cycles• Inconsistent standards• Eternal version 1•API != product •API with no client•Privileged citizens

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DepressionWhat’s the point? It’s doooooooomed!

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AcceptanceJust deal with it.

Everything Connected

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Reality•Your first client will hate you•You won’t make them care about the new API•You will compromise on design•Your client will have specific behaviour•You will feel REST symmetry pain•You will feel that it’s never ending

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API v1Rebirth.

Birth of API v1•Consuming clients•Quick deployments• Versioning •Dog fooding•A dev portal •SDKs

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Final ThoughtsThe lessons learned bit.

Final Thoughts • Focus people on the long term•Software is not an asset•Make services disposable•Recognise when it’s too big•Recognise client pain

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Final final thought• Kübler-Ross model of grief• “It’s fine. It’s not too bad”

• “Who can I blame?”

• “Maybe we can live with it”

• “It’s too big a problem. Doomed”

• “Might as well get on with it”

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denial

anger

bargaining

depression

acceptance

Thank you

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• Find me on Twitter @MendeleyStack