Best Practices
Learn the best practices for integrating with the Social Unlocks API effectively.
Implementation Tips
Do's
- • Always check HTTP status codes
- • Implement proper error handling
- • Use HTTPS for all requests
- • Cache responses when appropriate
- • Handle rate limiting gracefully
- • Validate key format before API calls
- • Monitor rate limit headers
- • Implement retry logic with backoff
Don'ts
- • Don't ignore 429 responses
- • Don't make requests too frequently
- • Don't retry immediately after 429
- • Don't hardcode retry delays
- • Don't assume all errors are temporary
- • Don't expose raw error messages to users
- • Don't make requests without error handling
- • Don't ignore rate limit headers
Performance Optimization
Request Optimization
- • Use appropriate HTTP methods (GET for retrieval)
- • Implement request timeouts
- • Use connection pooling
- • Minimize unnecessary API calls
- • Consider implementing retry logic
- • Monitor API usage and performance
Caching Strategies
- • Cache user lockers data for reasonable periods
- • Don't cache key validation results (they change frequently)
- • Implement cache invalidation strategies
- • Use appropriate cache headers
Security Considerations
- • Always use HTTPS for API requests
- • Validate and sanitize user input before making API calls
- • Don't expose API responses directly to users without validation
- • Implement proper error handling to avoid information leakage
- • Use secure coding practices when handling API responses
Monitoring and Logging
- • Log API requests and responses for debugging
- • Monitor rate limit headers to avoid hitting limits
- • Track API usage patterns and performance
- • Set up alerts for API failures or rate limit hits
- • Implement proper error logging with context