Build & Run a Web API for FREE »

With the proliferation of free, cloud services it's possible to build and run interesting mobile and web projects from end-to-end for free--including an awesome web API.

Here are 10 steps to building and running a web API for free.

1. Prepare

Get up to speed on APIs - from their economic and business model rationale to design best practices and principles to developer community practices.

 2. Design

Prioritize your resources (objects) in a Google spreadsheet and start to craft your URLs and HTTP methods. 
 

3. Build

Build your API quickly using Ruby on Rails scaffolding.  And here are some additional Rails API tips from @StefanSiebel.

Store your source code in GitHub.

 4. Deploy

After you create your Rails-based API, deploy it to Heroku.

5. Proxy

Use Apigee's Free service for API analytics, debugging and rate limiting.

6. Document

Document your API using GitHub pages.

7. Engage

Engage developers by embedding an API Console into your docs using Apigee To-Go.

8. Launch

Grab a domain name for your project from a DNS provider like GoDaddy.

Setup CNAME records for:

• GitHub docs: dev.mydomain.com
• Apigee proxy: api.mydomain.com

9. Promote

Use Twitter, Blogger and Facebook to promote your API.

10. Support

Support your community with GetSatisfaction and manage tickets with GitHub's Issues feature.

A couple of us (@earth2marsh & @landlessness) recently built an API with this set of products and had a lot of fun doing it. We'll talk more about that project in a future post.