I have been thinking to do review of optional API task so far. I have now finally got the time.
BACKGROUND
During the Perl Weekly challenge 005, Gabor Szabo, Chief Editor of Perl Weekly newsletter proposed optional API task to the weekly challenge. He even suggested list of API that I could use every week. It took me couple of weeks to figure out the format and other formalities. Finally it was introduced with the Perl Weekly Challenge - 008.
SUMMARY
Here is the summary of API task so far at the end of Perl Weekly Challenge - 016:
Perl Weekly Challenge - 008
Mailgun API
In the very first week, our super cool member, Joelle Maslak, took up the challenge and submitted the solutions in both Perl5 and Perl6.
Perl Weekly Challenge - 009
Spartpost API
This time 2 more members joined Joelle Maslak (Perl5 and Perl6), Veesh Goldman (Perl5) and Maxim Nechaev (Perl5).
Perl Weekly Challenge - 010
SendGrid API
Joelle Maslak holding the space alone this time in both Perl5 and Perl6 solutions.
Perl Weekly Challenge - 011
Open Weather Map API
This was the most popular API task so far, with 5 members submitted the solutions namely Athanasius (Perl5), Dave Jacoby (Perl5), Feng Chang (Perl5 and Perl6), Joelle Maslak (Perl5 and Perl6) and Steven Wilson (Perl5).
Perl Weekly Challenge - 012
Synonyms API
This time, we beat last week participations with 6 members attempting the API task. Athanasius (Perl5), Feng Chang (Perl5), Francis Whittle (Perl6), Joelle Maslak (Perl5 and Perl6), Kian-Meng Ang (Perl5) and Steven Wilson (Perl5).
Perl Weekly Challenge - 013
Words API
Not so lucky this time, just 2 members. Joelle Maslak (Perl5 and Perl6) and Guillermo Ramos (Perl5).
Perl Weekly Challenge - 014
Geo DB Cities API
Back again with force, 6 members took the challenge. Francis Whittle (Perl6), Joelle Maslak (Perl5 and Perl6), Kian-Meng Ang (Perl5), Lubos Kolouch (Perl5), Nikhil Prasanna (Perl5) and Rob Van Dam (Perl5).
Perl Weekly Challenge - 015
Language Detection API
This week we had 7 members, best participations ever. Athanasius (Perl5 and Perl6), Dave Jacoby (Perl5), Francis Whittle (Perl6), Guillermo Ramos (Perl5), Joelle Maslak (Perl5 and Perl6), Neil Bowers (Perl5) and Steven Wilson (Perl5).
Perl Weekly Challenge - 016
Winning Email API
None :-(
FINAL TALLY
Final tally at the end, in the bracket shows the number of API solutions submitted.
1) Joelle Maslak (14)
2) Athanasius (4)
3) Feng Chang (3)
4) Steven Wilson (3)
5) Dave Jacoby (2)
6) Guillermo Ramos (2)
7) Kian-Meng Ang (2)
8) Lubos Kolouch (1)
9) Maxim Nechaev (1)
10) Neil Bowers (1)
11) Nikhil Prasanna (1)
12) Rob Van Dam (1)
13) Veesh Goldman (1)
CONCLUSION
The current Perl Weekly Challenge - 017 has proposed Bhagavad Gita API to all the members.
Joelle Maslak is clearly leading the chart. One issue, I have noticed with API task, is they often need your personal detail to get the API key. I have made it clear, if ever such condition comes, feel free to skip the task.
Let me share a story with you, long time ago when I started contributing to CPAN, I looked up Google public API and found not many perl interface was available on CPAN. So I picked few and published the perl interface distributions to CPAN. I have had positive response to some of the API. While doing so, I noticed Neil Bowers also had some API interface. After looking at the code closely, I noticed there is pattern in all his API code. I started following his pattern, I refactored common code used by all API and published as a separated distribution. Now all API interface looked very light weight. One more thing, I noticed that respose to API call was converted into an object rather than raw hash. I updated all my API to return relevant object and not just raw hash.
While working on API related distributions, every time, I come across API documentation page there would always have an example code in every language but not in Perl. I was wondering why there is none in Perl. As you know, it is not that difficult to get one in Perl as well. So when Gabor Szabo proposed the idea, I thought this would address that void. I knew Neil Bowers had a liking to API related work, I was waiting for him to pick one soon. He finally picked on Language Detection API and published the perl interface WebService::DetectLanguage to CPAN. He didn’t just stop there, he got it listed on their official website. So thanks to Neil for all the hard work. I hope the hard work of all other members one day get the attention of the API creator and be listed as Perl5/Perl6 solutions.
I would like to encourage all the members who have not tried the API task, please do give a try. If possible let the creator know your work.