@sneak @theoretical please add commentary on APIs at the bottom of WP

[realnedscott]

APIs and Documentation

Several APIs exist ......... @sneak / @theoreticalbts please add a paragraph here and the documentation we want to point out.

Shared Tools for Signup, Key Signing and Wallet Functions

Several shared tools exist to support applications that wish to outsource signup, transaction signing and wallet functions, such as SteemConnect (ADD link to SteemConnect launch post).

How to Integrate Content from Steem into Websites and Apps

Several APIs exist ......... @sneak / @theoreticalbts please add a paragraph here and the documentation we want to point out.

[theoreticalbts]

@sneak, @mvandeberg, please correct me if I'm wrong on either of these points.

• There is no official documentation of API's anywhere except for the unfinished Devportal and doxygen comments in the code.
• Much of the API's and their organization is about to be deprecated. Therefore, new code should be written to the new API's.
• The new API's currently in the master branch are not backward compatible with the most recent production release, 0.19.1.
• The list of changes and incompatibilities is not documented anywhere.
• The list of changes and incompatibilities is still subject to change.

Therefore I am hesitant to add pointers to current code until the new API's are finalized and documented.

I was under the (perhaps mistaken) impression that we are writing manual.md keeping explicitly in mind an audience of users who are already familiar with (or who can get educated elsewhere about) the current version of steemd. So I think the information itself shouldn't be included here.

Instead, I think we should include a link to some stable source of information about API's. However, I'm pretty sure that at the moment no such source of information presently exists, not even code comments, as that is about to change.

[theoreticalbts]

As a separate question, manual.md may be the correct place for information about SMT-specific API's to go. However, no design work has been done on SMT-specific API's.

Historically, backend developers have written and tested the blockchain level implementation first, then simply created API's as needed to expose objects / indexes as client use cases arose. Specifying the API's ahead of time may be something we want to consider, but I'm thinking it would be more efficient (in terms of developer hours) to simply use that same workflow. The API's almost "write themselves" once the blockchain-level implementation is done.

[realnedscott]

It's fairly imperative we come back to this as early as possible -- either as the APIs are developed or in advance of their development.

[sneak]

I think we should leave the steemd-related things that are in flux out of the SMT whitepaper.

As we do HF20 and deprecate the "condenser api", we can make a point-release update of the SMT whitepaper with the API documentation.