Day 67 - APIs

Exploring APIs

Today was dedicated to exploring potential APIs for our company. We aim to facilitate cross-listing among various marketplaces, with eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and DBA being among the most crucial ones. While we already have access to eBay, we decided to investigate integrating another platform. DBA seemed like a logical choice, given its status as Denmark's largest resale market. Using the API documentation I found earlier, I was eager to dive into the work today. However, I quickly encountered obstacles - my authentication data was not accepted, and the API appeared to lack essential components. Then it dawned on me: I had been attempting to access the API of a company called dbaplatform, based in Florida, instead of the backend of Den Blå Avis. Back to square one.

Alternatives

It appears there's no suitable API available, and the setup is rather complex, making reverse-engineering a challenging task. To gain insights into alternative methods, I examined how our listing competitors operate. They utilize browser extensions to open tabs and populate them with user data. It's frustrating, but it seems this manual approach is the most viable option for creating listings. However, it also means we can't achieve full automation, at least not as seamlessly as with an API. Since we're left with no other choice for now, I'll have to look further into writing a simple browser extension to test its usability firsthand.