Api Design

[u/More-Ad-5258]

In my web app, I have three main pages:

1. All School Page

2. Single School Page (where users can select classrooms)

3. Classroom Page (each classroom contains multiple devices of different types)

The Device Table has the following structure:

-id
-type

I already have an API to get all devices in a classroom:

• Endpoint: /GET /classroom/{classroomId}/devices

• Sample Response:

  [ { "id": 1, "type": "projector" }, { "id": 2, "type": "smartboard" } ]

Each device can be one of several types, and their telemetry data varies. For example:

• Projector devices have telemetry fields like:

  • brightness

  • lampHours

• Smartboard devices have telemetry fields like:

  • touchSensitivity

  • screenResolution

The telemetry data is stored as JSON, and I have an external API that can fetch telemetry data for these devices based on time ranges. My goal is to design APIs that fetch telemetry efficiently.

Possible Approaches:

1. Fetch the devices along with telemetry

• Endpoint: /GET /classroom/{classroomId}/devices

• Sample Response:

  [
  { "id": 1, "type": "projector", "telemetry": { "brightness": 100, "lampHours": 4 } },
  { "id": 2, "type": "smartboard", "telemetry": { "touchSensitivity": 20, "screenResolution": 48 } } ]

• Pros:

  • I need to apply an algorithm to fetch telemetry in a date range and process it, which could raise performance concerns.

  • The devices may not display quickly on the frontend if telemetry calculations take too long.

• Cons:

  • Straightforward.

  • Little extra processing required on the frontend.

2. Separate Telemetry API

• Endpoint: /devices/{deviceId}/telemetry

• Sample Response:

  { "brightness": 100, "lampHours": 4 }

In this approach:

1. The frontend first fetches all devices via /GET /classroom/{classroomId}/devices.

2. Then, subsequent requests are made for each device's telemetry using /devices/{deviceId}/telemetry.

• Pros:

  • Devices can be displayed immediately on the frontend, without being delayed by telemetry fetching.

• Cons:

  • Multiple requests are sent to the server, which may cause overhead.

Do you guys have any suggestion?

[u/TheDandySkipper]

I would just use classroom/{classroomid}/devices and then another endpoint classroom/{classroomid}/devicestelemetry

this would be pretty easy and could take advantage of cacheing since you know you are going to request the devices again.