Using your own API to build your site

Question

Hi.

I'm looking to create a new site and in order to encourage myself to create a powerful API for others to use, I'm tempted to write the API and use it myself to build the the actual site. The idea being, if it is capable of running the primary site, then it will give other users plenty of options to put their own spin on things. It will also encourage me to keep the API up to date.

What I'd like to know is whether this idea is worth going with, or whether its just plain nuts.

Is this common practice? Will it likely result in over complicated code? Will it cause performance issues if (by some chance) the site was to take off?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

There are some really great APIs already. Why reinvent the wheel?(I'm assuming this is what you want to do)

Answer 2

It is common practice to build a public api and consume it internally, and from my experience it results in cleaner code (rather than maintaining two sets, one internal, one external). There may be a performance hit, but I would not worry about that too much until you see some real demand. Otherwise you can get yourself wrapped around solving problems that don't exist.

Answer 3

It's a great idea, as long as you are doing it for yourself and not using up someone else's time/money.

Writing your own framework from scratch is a great way to teach yourself about planning and writing code. It may take a long time and be a long adventure, but I can personally attest that it forces you to become an expert in everything.

For anything that is being developed on someone else's dime, or which is mission-critical (security or performance) however, I would recommend re-using an existing framework where it is logical to do so.