Changelog #13: Java SDKs & Telemetry

Changes to the Speakeasy platform - December 8, 2022.

In 2022, we’ve seen the acceleration of a trend: the dispersal of programming language usage. There’s no sign of that trend abating anytime soon. That’s great for nerding out over language design, but it’s a pain if you’re on the hook for building your API’s client libraries. Whereas 15 years ago you could have covered most programmers with 3-4 libraries, it’s now probably closer to 8-10.

Language dispersal makes it harder to provide the same level of service to your users and makes it harder to keep track of how users are interfacing with your product.

We’re committed to giving people the tools they need to manage this new reality. We’re constantly working to add more languages to our SDK generator: the alpha for Java is live! And we’ve baked telemetry into all of the SDKs we create so you can get a clear picture of how your users experience your API.

New Features

Client SDKs: Java (Alpha) - Love it or hate it, there’s no denying the importance of Java. As one of the most widely-used server-side programming languages, anyone building an API should be sure to make sure they have SDKs for the Java community. We’ve built our Java SDKs to make sure they follow Java conventions and design patterns to provide a consistent interface for developers interacting with your API:

• Minimal Dependencies: we use Jackson Libary (opens in a new tab) to (de)serialize models, and use java.net HttpClients to make HTTP requests.
• Annotations for all generated models: this allows us to append per field metadata to correctly serialize and deserialize models based on the OpenAPI document.
• A utils module: to contain methods for configuring the SDK and serializing/deserializing the types we generate, to avoid duplication of code in each method reducing the readability.

To see the SDKs for yourself, just download our CLI:

brew install speakeasy-api/homebrew-tap/speakeasy speakeasy generate sdk -s openapi.yaml --output ./sdk -l java

SDK Usage Telemetry - If you don’t know which SDKs developers are using to access your API, then you’ve got a blind spot in your understanding of your users. Github stars offer an imperfect metric: they help you understand interest rather than SDK usage. We’ve addressed this common gap in telemetry with our SDKs. When you integrate Speakeasy into your API, you will get SDK usage telemetry out of the box! SDK Language and version are now available as filter criteria in the usage dashboard and request viewer, so you can easily get a clear picture of which languages your users favor.

Small Improvements

New UX - Same product with a fresh coat of paint. New icons, colors, and navigation for a much improved user experience. You’ve probably noticed a difference in our latest Gifs, so head over to our app to experience it yourself.