Evaluating two API's - Netsuite and Quickbooks

[MMock]

Hello. Currently at my company we use Epicor Prophet 21 as our ERP software. I do not have P21 installed nor do I ever run it, but I code our proprietary customer service Windows application in .NET. It is a desktop Windows application written in C# using SQL Server databases. We have our own database as well as the P21 database. So my application's interface to P21 is all database calls (tables/views [they like you to use the views vs the tables directly], stored procedures, functions etc.

Management wants to use something else, and asked me for a high level review of both the Netsuite and Quickbooks API's as an alternative.

So I am doing what I usually do when I don't know how to do something, and that is ask you guys for help.

How would you "review" something like this? Honestly, I don't really know how easy to use something is until I'm actually using it which is a bit more involved than anything high level. I don't know if this is even a programmer's decision. I mean as long as an API isn't terrible, then you can integrate it. Isn't it more of a management decision? Maybe my input will just be some of many others.

What would you do given a task like this?

[techgnome]

Read the documentation - see how easy it is to integrate the APIs ...
Try building proof of concepts (POCs) that demonstrate some basic usage of the APIs
Decide what capabilities you need/want and figure out which one supports those needs (or just as well, doesn't support them)
Make a list of pros & cons of using each one.

-tg

[MMock]

Thanks, tg. As far as your first bullet goes, it seems everything is a marketing pitch and of course they say "easily integrate our API's." I had started with a search of each on vbForums to see what kinds of difficulties people we having.

To "demonstrate some basic usage" - does that involve getting sample code and a trial of each and trying it out? So that is high-level in terms of what we do in detail, but still a bit involved.

[Shaggy Hiker]

Beware of marketing jargon...and it sounds like you are suitably wary in that regard.

Has anybody ever seen an API advertised as being "powerful, but such a pain to use that you'll question your very sanity." Of course they're easy to integrate. Even if they aren't, they technically are, because the alternative you are comparing to is "do nothing" and "hit computer with various objects that come readily to hand", neither of which is going to be quite as good as even a weak API implementation. And boy do I have an example of THAT, but I won't mention it on here.

It sounds like you have a fair understanding of at least some tasks that would require the API. If you can find actual documentation for the API, and not just the sales bloviation, then I'd be looking at the methods in the API while thinking, "how would I achieve task T using these methods?" If the answer to that question is easy from looking at the methods, then that would be a good sign. If you can't think of any way to achieve task T using those methods, then that would be a bad sign.

Ultimately, though, it's very hard to do any thorough evaluation from looking at the documentation. It might be a start, but it's not likely to be an end. That leaves you with either how you feel about it, or perhaps if they have a live chat or active forum, you could ask about how to accomplish task T. Even then, once you have evaluated as much as you possibly can, you will be taking a bit of a chance.

[abhijit]

Yes all APIs are easy to use till you actually have to use them.

Our API is so user-friendly, it only takes a team of experienced developers and several sleepless nights to implement!

[MMock]

Been sticking my head in the sand over this one, and so far so good. I'll let you know what happens when we actually take the plunge.
I have found, with API's I've used in the past, that once you have it working it's pretty simple and elegant, it's just getting there that's painful because sometimes documentation isn't so great!

[abhijit]

Been sticking my head in the sand over this one, and so far so good. I'll let you know what happens when we actually take the plunge.
I have found, with API's I've used in the past, that once you have it working it's pretty simple and elegant, it's just getting there that's painful because sometimes documentation isn't so great!

In my experience, I am yet to see API documentation that is updated, easy to use and just works by following the instructions.