Catch these Postman talks at the 2022 API Specifications Conference

Pascal Heus

August 29, 2022

Postmanauts from Postman Open Technologies and other teams will have a strong presence at the upcoming API Specifications Conference (ASC 2022) taking place in South San Francisco on September 19-21. The event brings together API practitioners and enthusiasts to discuss the evolution of API technologies. ASC includes cutting-edge technology keynotes and sessions that chart the future of APIs with in-depth specification and standards discussions.

Here’s a summary of what to expect from our scheduled Postman talks—adding to the many reasons you do not want to miss this exciting event:

Jason Desrosiers: JSON Schema Vocabularies
Monday, September 19 (1:30pm – 3:00pm PDT)
Have you ever had an idea for a JSON Schema keyword that would make your life easier? Whether it’s an assertion JSON Schema doesn’t support, or syntactic sugar for a complex pattern, or just an annotation, the JSON Schema vocabulary system formalizes a way for you to define, use, and share your custom keywords with the world. Custom vocabularies can be used for all kinds of things from creating a set of utility keywords for complex validations to a set of annotations supporting things like form builders or code generators.

In this hands-on workshop, Jason covers all the concepts and terms you’ll need to know to design and implement your own vocabulary using JavaScript and other libraries.

Joyce Lin: The Trials and Tribulations of Going API-First
Tuesday, September 20 (11:15am-11:45am PT)
Everyone is jumping on the API-first bandwagon. For most organizations, an API-first approach is the key to scaling software development. But the journey to API-first is not always smooth sailing.

In 2022, Joyce interviewed five well-known organizations to learn their dirty little secrets. How did they establish an API-first workflow? We’ll uncover why they began their transition, their biggest hurdles, and what is next on their roadmap. Learn from these shared experiences and recommendations to pave the way in your own API-first journeys. This is a session about managing organizational change.

Ben Hutton: JSON Schema in Production – You Can Use It Today
Tuesday, September 20 (3:05pm-3:35pm PT)
Join us to hear about the journey of organizations that use JSON Schema in production today, and learn about how JSON Schema continues to deliver value.

W. Ian Douglas: When “Meets Expectations” Exceeds Expectations
Tuesday, September 20 (5:05pm PT)
If you’ve ever dreaded a conversation like “We need to have a chat about your test scores,” then you’ll be relieved to hear that “meets expectations” is the best possible outcome with API contract validations. Let’s explore validators and deeper testing principles in Postman to make sure your APIs are behaving appropriately for the best possible user experience. Learn some valuable tips to take your testing to the next level!

Ben Hutton: The Future of JSON Schema?
Wednesday, September 21 (12:05pm-12:45pm PT)

JSON Schema is a foundational specification relied on by other API specifications.It is dedicated to supporting the wider community. Dialects and vocabularies for JSON Schema ushered in a new era of schema tooling, defining a standardized approach for interoperable extensions. While we’ve started to engage with various industry partners, it’s hard to do so fully with limited resources.

With this in mind, how should we engage with industry partners, and what other areas of enablement should we focus on for with JSON Schema and associated tooling? What are the largest and most challenging problems the community faces, and how could we combat them?

Meenakshi Dhanani: Don’t Panic: A Developer’s Guide to Building Secure GraphQL APIs
Wednesday, September 21 (1:35pm-2:05pm PDT)

The adoption of GraphQL APIs in production is increasing. Sure, you can declaratively fetch the data you need, but could over-fetching be dangerous? While teams use this query language to create fast, flexible APIs, they inadvertently expose their systems to new attack vectors in the process.

This session will cover the dos and don’ts of designing secure GraphQL APIs by highlighting case studies and the OWASP risks connected with them. The goal is to give you the tools you need to be proactive and plan for threats earlier in the API lifecycle. In addition, you’ll also learn about the challenges and security risks that GraphQL APIs face when compared to other popular API specifications and standards.

Arnaud Lauret: OpenAPI 3.x Does What Swagger 2.0 Don’t
Wednesday, September 21 (2:15pm-2:45pm PT)
It hurts, but though OpenAPI 3 is five years old and has more features, many people still use its previous version: Swagger 2.0. It’s high time that this changes. Inspired by the ‘90s “Sega Does What Nintendon’t” advertising campaign, Arnaud Lauret will compare versions 2.0, 3.0, and 3.1 of the specification, demonstrating the benefits of the new features introduced by 3.x versions to create more precise, better documented, more practical, and future-proof API contract descriptions.

Why do so? Because having a better understanding of the capabilities of the new versions and thus knowing what they are missing will perhaps push users and creators to say goodbye and thank you to Swagger 2.0 and hello to OpenAPI 3.x. It may also help OpenAPI 3.x users discover features they were not aware of.

Pascal Heus: Open Data APIs: Standards, Best Practices, and Implementation Challenges
Wednesday, September 21 (2:55pm-3:25pm PT)
Thinking about delivering open data through APIs? This presentation will highlight fundamental issues and challenges surrounding the publication of research and scientific data, describe ongoing efforts around related standard and best practices, and provide guidance for the establishment of modern service-oriented data infrastructures. By the end of this talk, you will be familiar with the current state of data, the need to upgrade to digital knowledge, what is the FAIR (findable-accessible-interoperable-reusable data), and ongoing efforts around a Cross Domain Interoperability Framework (CDIF). You will gain a deeper understanding on how you can deliver modern data API that caters to the needs of both users and applications, foster the adoption of best practices, and unleash machine intelligence.

Elegbede Azeez: AsyncAPI
Elegbede from our AsyncAPI developer relations team will be delivering both a workshop and a couple of exciting presentations around AsyncAPI:

• Workshop: Zero to Hero with AsyncAPI
  Monday, September 19 (3:30pm-5:00pm PT)
  In this session, you will learn about event-driven architecture, how to implement one using the AsyncAPI specification, the tools AsyncAPI offers, and how to start an event-driven solution.
• Maintaining and Improving your Event-Driven Architecture with the AsyncAPI Tooling Ecosystem
  Wednesday, September 21 (12:05pm-12:35pm PT)
  A walkthrough of various tools that exist in the AsyncAPI ecosystem, and how they can help improve and maintain your event-driven architectures or quickly bootstrap a new EDA without prior knowledge of the specification.
• Understanding what Event-Driven Architecture is all about and how AsyncAPI is Building the Future
  Wednesday, September 21 (2:55pm-3:25pm PT)
  This session will introduce you to the world of event-driven architecture and how it helps solve issues around request-response chain breakdowns or complex services ecosystem single point of failure.