We begin our series about interesting APIs from 2016 with Business and Productivity API highlights. Included in this section are some APIs for Email, Messaging, Bots, Contacts, Spreadsheets, Marketing, Search, eCommerce and other Business or Productivity needs.
Microsoft has released the Microsoft ExcelREST API for Office 365 allows developers to integrate Microsoft Excel into their own applications and systems. The API provides methods for interacting with worksheets, tables, columns, rows, charts, ranges, and any named items. This could potentially be used as a calculation service, a reporting service, or a data service. Also from Microsoft, the Windows Store analytics API allows app owners to access app information from the Windows Store without logging into Dev Center. It can be used to obtain data associated with in-app product (IAP) acquisitions, errors, app ratings, and reviews.
We can't mention Business APIs in 2016 without mentioning Bots. About 30 APIs were added to the ProgrammableWeb directory during 2016 for Bots and Bot services including Gupshup, Botlytics, GroupMe, ChatBottle, and Line Bot, but two of them were more popular than all the others. The Skype Bot REST API allows developers to create and deploy messaging bots for Skype. Some of the API methods include accessing accounts, creating bots, and deploying bot messages. And the Slack Bot REST API allows developers to build bots and bot users for the popular team communication platform.
Speaking of Slack, The Slack Events Webhooks API allows developers to build applications that respond to activities in Slack. User and bot based event subscriptions can be received in JSON format. Once event types are specified, Slack will provide a stream of data with this RESTful API.
Autodesk is a leading 3D design, engineering, and entertainment software provider. The company added some beefy developer tools to their Forge platform during 2016 including the Autodesk Forge 3D Print API, which allows models to be prepared for a specific printer, allows print jobs to be queued up, and generates the G-code the printer expects.
Add 3D print prep functions to apps via Autodesk Forge 3D Print API Image Credit: Autodesk
Calendly makes scheduling software for users to provide customer based calendar services by eliminating email and phone tag for scheduling meetings and appointments. The Calendly API allows you to integrate a Real-time calendar to schedule your business. Features include webhooks, and invitee created and canceled event, group events, team scheduling, notifications, scheduling appointments, interviews, calls, demos and more.
RocketReach crawls the Web for information about people. The RocketReach API can retrieve peoples' contact information such as email addresses, phone numbers, and profile info from social websites like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Angel.co, and Crunchbase.
RocketReach crawls the web for contact information Image Credit: RocketReach
Hoshinplan is a business management system with monitoring and collaboration features. This system offers proactive alert sending, performance history charts, and health reports. The Hoshinplan REST API is used to interact with Hoshinplan to share and track business strategy.
The TabexPDF to Excel API is a high-speed file conversion solution that can extract tabular data from PDF documents. The API can convert PDF files to Excel and many other formats that include XML, CSV, HTML, and Text. Its algorithmic orientation allows developers to deploy different modes of API calls while incorporating it in data processing work flows.
Tallyfy is a platform used to execute and track business operations. The Tallyfy application transforms processes, documents and spreadsheets into easy-to-follow checklists. The Tallyfy API offers features such as building, copying and tracking processes, collaboration, and cross-platform functionality.
Stampery provides notary technology services. The Stampery API employs blockchain technology to validate and authenticate documents and maintain tamper proof data records. The API allows developers to embed verification and evidentiary stamps on documents.