What is a data contract, and do we need one for a vendor integration?
A data contract is a written, testable agreement about the data crossing a boundary: field names, types, whether each is required, allowed values, deliver…
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APIs & Data
Integration mechanics, data models and systems of record.
Why does a paged API export sometimes skip or duplicate records?
Offset paging asks for rows 500 through 599 of a result set that is still changing underneath you. When records are inserted or reordered while you page, …
Why do records go missing when we pull large result sets from an API?
Almost always pagination. Offset pagination asks for page three of a result set. If records are added or changed while you are paging, rows shift across p…
Why did our integration stop working after months of running fine?
Most integrations die from credential and permission changes, not code. Refresh tokens get invalidated when a password changes, an employee is deactivated…
How do you find out an integration broke before the client does?
You monitor outputs, not uptime. Four checks catch most failures: freshness (did anything arrive in the expected window), volume (is today's count inside …
How do you load years of history from an API that rate limits you?
Separate the backfill from the live sync and give each its own budget. Walk history in fixed time slices, checkpoint after every slice so a failure resume…
How do you load years of history from an API without hitting rate limits?
You separate the two jobs. A backfill loads history once, in date slices, with a checkpoint after each slice so a failure resumes instead of restarting. A…
How should an integration retry when the API returns errors?
Retry only what is safe to retry, with exponential backoff plus randomized jitter, and know when to stop. Retry 429 and 5xx responses; do not retry 400, 4…
What happens when two systems change the same record at the same time?
Someone loses. Your only real choice is whether you decide who loses or the clock decides for you. Last-write-wins is simple and quietly destroys data whe…
What is an API, in terms that actually matter to a business owner?
An API is a door a software vendor builds into their system so other software can read and write data through it, under rules the vendor sets. It matters …
Why map systems to a shared data model instead of connecting them to each other directly?
Because point-to-point mappings multiply. Connecting five systems directly can mean twenty translations to maintain; routing them through one shared model…
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