API Version Change Filtering by Client Usage

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Solution Overview

Problem

Developers face inefficiencies and errors when updating client applications to newer API versions due to the need to review extensive lists of changes across numerous API calls, many of which are not used by their applications, leading to time-consuming and error-prone processes.

Innovation Solution

A method and system that compares specific versions of an API, filtering changes to only those calls used by a client application, ranking them by usage frequency, and displaying changes across a series of version upgrades, allowing for efficient identification and prioritization of necessary updates.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If developers review all published API changes to ensure comprehensive updates, then the completeness of API updates is improved, but the time and effort required increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of API updatesVSAvoidtime required to review changes

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and filters only the subset of API changes that are relevant to the specific client application, removing irrelevant changes from the review process. The system compares the application's API call inventory against published change lists to identify only those changes that affect the specific application, thereby maintaining update completeness while reducing review time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent segments the comprehensive API change list into application-specific subsets by categorizing changes according to the actual API calls used by each client application. This segmentation allows developers to review only the relevant portion of changes for their specific application rather than the entire API change set.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If developers review changes to all API calls including unused ones, then no relevant changes are missed, but the complexity of the review process increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of change identificationVSAvoidcomplexity of review process

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts only the relevant API changes that pertain to the client application's actual usage, eliminating the need to review changes to unused API calls. This extraction process maintains complete identification of relevant changes while simplifying the review process by removing unnecessary information.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Reliability

If developers manually track changes across multiple API versions, then all changes can be identified, but the effort and potential for errors increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaccuracy of change trackingVSAvoidease of update process

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs automatic self-service by comparing the client application's API call inventory against published API change lists and generating a filtered report of relevant changes. This automated process eliminates the need for manual tracking across multiple versions, maintaining accurate change identification while significantly improving ease of operation.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system provides feedback to developers in the form of a customized change report that highlights only the API changes relevant to their specific application. This targeted feedback mechanism ensures accurate tracking of all relevant changes while making the update process easier by presenting information in a digestible, prioritized format.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

4Loss of information

If comprehensive lists of all API changes are provided, then all possible changes are visible, but the usefulness to individual developers decreases due to information overload

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecompleteness of change informationVSAvoidusefulness of change information

Core Design Contradiction:

Loss of informationVSEase of operation

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts and presents only the subset of API changes that are relevant to the specific client application, removing irrelevant information from the output. This extraction maintains completeness of relevant change information while improving usefulness by eliminating information overload with application-specific filtering.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS10310850B2Methods and systems for determining relevant changes in an API

Publication Date: 2019.06.04 META PLATFORMS INC

AI summary

Methods, systems, and/or devices for determining relevant changes to an API are described herein. In one aspect, a server system receives a request from a client to compare two versions of an API. A comparison of the two versions, and any intervening versions, of the API is performed by a server, which may then rank the comparison results based on the call volume or other criteria and will return the ranked results to a client for display to a user. Options include restricting the list of changes to just changes impacting a specific client application.