Why Your DAM System Needs An API: Opportunities And Risks

APIs seem to be the fashionable must-have accessory for many DAM systems currently (not before time many of their end users might be tempted to remark). This CMSWire.com article was written by Edward Smith, one of the better writers about Digital Asset Management in our view.  Edward assesses why APIs are important in a fairly non-technical and easy to understand manner.  He also offers some pertinent warnings about the commitment of a vendor to their API:

“Is the developer of the API committed to supporting your code now and in future releases? If you write code today, will the vendor provide support for what you write in future versions? If you get stuck, is there someone to call for help? (Hopefully the DAM vendor or at least someone who is familiar with the API and report bugs to the developers.) Does the developer eat their own dog food, meaning do they write the official DAM user interface using their own API?  Custom API implementations can be a major investment in time and money, and could end up locking you into your DAM. A DAM vendor using their own API not only shows that the vendor is committed to their API but that the interface has already been rigorously tested in real world situations. To avoid being the guinea pig in a new experiment, make sure the API has been used by someone else in a production environment.” [Read More]

Also worth reading is his earlier article about ‘DAM Liquidity‘ (i.e. transferability of assets between DAM systems).

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