03 June 2014

OpenAir API shock

From the NetSuite OpenAir API documentation (PDF):

Since we are using HTTP, each connection is isolated, and must go through authorization each time. This authorization consists of sending the server an XML data structure consisting of company name, user name, and user password.

... really? In 2014? Ever heard of tokens? I'm not asking for full OAuth, but a simple header-based token mechanism is banal, faster and much more secure than sending XML with user and password for each request.

Oh, your API endpoint is a Perl script. That explains it, I guess... you are not "using HTTP", you are using CGI. Badly.

After this gem, I'm not surprised to learn that they implement simple data-retrieval actions with POST (or PUT -- what?) rather than GET, that the whole API basically consists in exposing database tables as they are, and that their XML is entirely custom. Excuse me, I think I've just thrown up in my mouth...

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