Our Tech Talks strive to focus on the most interesting and relevant API Management topics for both developers and publishers. And as new and evolving protocols emerge, we want to provide a forum for developers and publishers alike to discuss these protocols in an open discussion forum. So with that in mind, our next Tech Talk will focus on OpenID Connect.

OpenID Connect is an emerging standard that adds federated authentication to OAuth 2.0-enabled systems. It’s a suite of lightweight specifications that provide a framework for identity interactions via RESTful APIs. And in its simplest deployment, OpenID Connect allows all types of clients including browser-based, mobile and javascript to request and receive information about identities and currently authenticated sessions.

So, it’s a relatively simple protocol that helps make authenticating complicated scenarios easier. And let’s be honest – simple and easy are always welcome when it comes to securing RESTful APIs. Authorization and authentication are now available using only one technology. This makes life easier for anyone looking to secure their APIs.

But of course, questions always arise when discussing the various implementation scenarios for OpenID Connect. That’s why we’re excited to welcome Senior Software Developer Sascha Preibisch as our special guest for our July 10 Tech Talk Tuesday. He will answer any OpenID Connect questions you may have – so get those questions ready and join us on July 10 at 9am PDT.

Here’s how to join the discussion:

Click here to get a reminder in your calendar.

On the day of the event, join on Livestream or Facebook:
»  livestream.com/layer7live
»  facebook.com/layer7

Tuesday, July 10 | 9am PDT | 12pm EDT | 5pm BST

Submit your questions:
Tweet using the tag #Layer7Live
Email techtalk@layer7.com
Check in & Chat through Facebook

Each and every Web or mobile developer has unique needs. APIs have to be flexible enough to meet these varying needs.

Mike Amundsen, Layer 7′s new Principal API Architect, is an in-demand thought leader who focuses on the subject of how to build flexible, adaptable APIs. We’re very excited that Mike will be discussing this issue as our special guest for the next Tech Talk Tuesday event on June 26 at 9am PDT.

He’ll be chatting with Director of Client Solutions Matt McLarty and taking questions live. It’s not a presentation or scripted in anyway. It’s simply a chance for you to have your questions on designing flexible APIs answered live.

So, what does it mean to design a flexible API? Here are a few things to consider:

• Employing the USE methodology (Usable, Scalable, Evolvable)
• When (and when NOT) to version your API
• Supporting multiple formats (XML, JSON etc.)
• Designing the message format
• Planning for re-usability
• The power of hypermedia as a design element

I’m looking forward to a great interactive Tech Talk with lots of questions and audience participation. It’s a great topic and we have a great speaker to go along with it.

Don’t forget to add the Tech Talk to your calendar.

On the day of the event, join on Livestream or Facebook:

•  livestream.com/layer7live
•  facebook.com/layer7

Submit your questions:

Tweet using the tag #Layer7Live
Email techtalk@layer7.com
Check-in & Chat through Facebook

Get your API analytics questions ready! Tech Talk is coming up tomorrow, Tuesday June 12 – it’s live it’s interactive and CTO Scott Morrison will be our guest. Tweet questions to #layer7live.

Add it to your calendar

If you publish an API, you need a way to measure and understand how that API functions. You need a way to manage it. You need a way to measure it. APIs are becoming an essential part of the Internet and more enterprises are opening up their APIs to third-party developers.

Of course, API security is always a concern but if you publish an API, you also need to measure how it functions – what metrics are you concerned with? Are there any API errors my application is seeing? How does my API usually perform and is that changing? Is it slowing down or are there latency issues caused by using a proxy?

Key metrics API publishers need to consider include: errors, performance, availability, latency and response time. And with the Layer 7 API Portal, these metrics can be graphed and filtered by user, developer and API.

So be sure to join us tomorrow at 9am PDT when Layer 7 CTO Scott Morrison will take live questions from the stream. It’s a great chance to have your API analytics questions answered.

How to Attend:

Just visit the Layer 7 Facebook page at 9am PDT on June 12 and click the Livestream icon.

Don’t have Facebook? Simply click here to watch directly through Livestream.

How to Submit Questions:

On Facebook

•    Click on the Livestream PLAY button to join the stream
•    Click the red “Check in & Chat” button to submit questions

On Twitter
•    Tweet questions with the hashtag #layer7live

These are eventful times for Layer 7, with staff-members appearing at trade shows across North America and Europe. Notably, our CTO Scott Morrison has been undertaking what he’s termed his APIs, Cloud & Identity Tour. Somehow, Scott is also finding time to take part in a couple of the company’s upcoming Web seminars.

On May 29, he’ll be presenting our latest Tech Talk Tuesday meet-up, titled Swagger, WADL & API ‘Scriptions. This interactive session will take a look at the relative merits of different standards for creating formalized, machine-interpretable API descriptions. For full details on how to view and join in with this event, visit the Tech talk Tuesday page.

The following day, Scott will be reprising the recent webinar Identity, Access & Privacy for the New Hybrid Enterprise, featuring Eve Maler of Forrester Research, Inc. This is a special live presentation for the Asia/Pacific region (at 11am Sydney time/9am Singapore time). For more information, take a look at the webinar registration page.

Scott gets a break when Product Manager Dana Crane takes over webinar duty on June 5 for Getting Your API Discovered: The Secret to API Promotion, featuring ProgrammableWeb Founder John Musser. This session will explore a range of best practices for building a community of API developers. Registration is open now and you can click here to sign up.

A few months back, Layer 7 launched Tech Talk Tuesday, a series of interactive developer meet-ups focusing on all things API, broadcast through the company’s Facebook and Livestream pages. We know it’s not always easy to catch a live event like Tech Talk Tuesday, so we’ve also been making recordings of the sessions available in the Videos section of our Resource Library.

We have some pretty exciting things planned for upcoming Tech Talks. The next regular Tech Talk will be a discussion of “Swagger, WADL & API ‘Scriptions” on May 29. You can click here to add it to your calendar. We’re also planning to stream a very special Tech Talk from the upcoming Glue Conference. Watch this space for more details.

For all the latest Tech Talk news – as well as quick-and-easy access to archived broadcasts – you can visit the Tech Talk Tuesday page on our Web site.