INTERFACE, by apidays 2021 - It’s APIs all the way down June 30, July 1 & 2, 2021 Building contextualized API specifications Boris Vernoff, Chief Achitect at ADP

1. Copyright © 2021 ADP, Inc.
Copyright © 2021 ADP, Inc.
Building Contextualized API Specs
One Size Does Not Fit All
Boris Vernoff
Boris Vernoff

2. Copyright © 2021 ADP, Inc.
About ADP
• Over 740,000
clients worldwide
• 140+ countries
• More than 35
million users
• 5 million logins a
day
• Wide breadth of
HCM and payroll
solutions
• Best HCM service
and BPO offerings
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ADP’s Strength is Data
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APIs
HR Payroll Talent
Time Benefits
Staffing Tax
Money
Movement

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“…every company is a software company; every
company is a digital organization…”
Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO
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Quote of the Day

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Service Company
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Software Company
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ADP as a Software Company
• Grew through acquisitions
• Includes variety of products - different platforms and technologies
• Difficult to integrate across multiple products
API Everything
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Data Synchronization ADP Goes Mobile Marketplace Digital Transformation

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Service Expansion
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HR
Payroll
Talent
Benefits
Staffing
Money
Movement
Payroll
Payroll
HR
HR
Benefits
Benefits

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Success of API Program
Partners
Developers
Clients
Product
Owners

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API Specification - Does One Size Fit All?

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HCM Challenge – Context Varies
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• Applicability of data may vary
• Constraints may vary
• Valid values may vary
• Relevant operations may vary
Standard
Object
Industry
Constraints
Client
Constraints
Regional
Context

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Dimensions of Context
• Provider
• Various levels / flavors of service
• Geo-Political
• Government rules & regulations
• Industry Specific
• Different fields can have different accents
• Consumer
• Internal vs. external
• Partner vs. customer
• Developer vs. product owner
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API Specification Components
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JSON
Request / Response / Event Model
Usage Examples / Scenarios
URIs / Operations
Headers / Parameters
Response Codes
Descriptions
Object Model / Sequence

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Solution - Requirements
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• Context-aware Developer’s portal
• Partner – choice of contexts
• Consumer – subscription-based context
• Context-specific API documentation
• Contextualized schemas w/ tailored examples
• Selective operation support
• Customized business rules
• API Registry
• Data-driven API specification generation
• User access / entitlements management
• Infrastructure integrated

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API Portal Access Diagram
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User authenticated
to API Portal
Partner sets
context
API Provider
(feature + context)
identified
Relevant
contextualized
specs presented
“Editor
vs. “Viewer”
access granted
User roles

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User Roles and Entitlements
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• Consumer (Client Co)
• Read contextualized specs based on the context subscribed
• Consumer (Partner Co)
• Choose context based on the partner agreement
• Read contextualized specs using any context allowed
• API Designer (Provider)
• Read & clone canonical (templates) and contextualized specs
• Create new contexts / contextualized specs (own provider)
• API Architect (COE)
• Read & clone canonical and contextualized specs
• Create new contexts / contextualized specs
• Define new / modify existing canonical spec templates

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User Roles (Cont’d)
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• Administrator
• Manage users and entitlements
• Manage and maintain CI/CD pipelines

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Specification Contextualization
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Let the Fun Begin

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Context Definition
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Product /
Provider
Region
Industry

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Context Selection
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Edit titles, descriptions,
upload examples, make
schema adjustments

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Context Selection Dashboard
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Canonical /
templates
Provider Provider /
Region
Provider Provider /
Region
Provider
Provider

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API Contextualization
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• Choose operations supported
• Update operation descriptions / summaries
• Choose supported headers / query parameters
• Modify query parameter obligation / exposure
• Define usage scenarios
• Associate request and response, provide descriptions
• Upload scenario specific payload examples

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API Contextualization - Operations
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Available operations
as per canonical
definition
Selected operations
for a given context

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API Contextualization - Descriptions
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Main title
Main
description
Section title
Section
description
Operation title
Operation
description

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Usage Scenarios
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Custom scenario
description

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Usage Scenarios – Custom Response Examples
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Response
Specific
example

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API Usage Scenarios - Overview
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Defined
scenarios
Applicable
responses
Response
payload
example
Download
current or paste
new content

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API Contextualization - Schema
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Canonical
schema
Attribute
selection
Context
selection
Descriptions,
obligation, ranges,
enumerations, etc.
Array
attributes
Date
attributes
Numeric
attributes
Save
schema

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Access Entitlement Management
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Allowed
Available

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Access Entitlement Management (Cont’d)
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Summary
• The same API specification can vary for different consumers (usage
context driven)
• API documentation portal supports role-based access and API
documentation is tailored to the specific consumer
• API provider can define multiple “flavors” of the specification based on
various usage contexts
• All variations must be a subset of the canonical version - consistency
is the key
One Size Does Not Fit All
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Questions
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Thank you
Boris Vernoff
boris.vernoff@adp.com
Linked-In
https://www.linkedin.com/in/boris-vernoff
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