IntuiLab Introduces Machine Learning to Unlock Web API Access for Non-Developers

IntuiLab, provider of IntuiFace, the world’s premier no-coding interactive experience creation and deployment platform, has announced its latest innovation – IntuiFace API Explorer. With API Explorer, creatives of any skill set can access and display content and services exposed by Web APIs without having to write code. Through the use of patent-pending technology and a machine learning engine, API Explorer democratizes access to Web Services, removing barriers that had previously limited API usage to developers.

APIs – Application Programming Interfaces - are a facilitator of communication between two or more software applications. By exposing an API, modern software platforms enable third parties to access their content and/or services. Today, if it’s digital, it’s accessible through an API. In fact, from a cloud perspective, an immense world of content and services are accessible through Web APIs. For example, ProgrammableWeb catalogs over 17,000 third-party APIs enabling free access to everything from the weather and currency conversion rates to NASA photos, Rijksmuseum art collections, Twitter feeds, Spotify albums, WordPress CMS content and Twilio SMS messages.

From digital signage to information kiosks and sales pitches, Web-accessible content and services can deliver significant value. The problem is that the language spoken by these APIs – REST-based Web Services – requires technical skill to understand and use. The resulting “Great API Wall” could only be scaled by software developers, creating an unfair advantage for a privileged few and limiting the full potential of this available content and information. IntuiLab created API Explorer to address this access challenge.

API Explorer takes a request URL as input from an IntuiFace user and generates a non-technical, user-friendly display of the non-friendly XML or JSON response delivered by the corresponding Web API. In parallel, API Explorer automatically preselects the returned API properties, from all properties within the XML/JSON response, it considers most likely to be displayed in a multi-touch experience (e.g. images, videos, websites, text, etc.). All of this is facilitated by a machine learning engine within API Explorer which gets “smarter” by observing users world-wide as they identify their preferences.

From there IntuiFace creates, behind the scenes, an interface to establish a dynamic connection between the API and any IntuiFace experience. Finally, a visual layout bound to the user’s selected properties is intelligently produced in the targeted interactive experience, another capability driven by adaptive machine learning. The overall layout can be rearranged as needed and combined with all other IntuiFace design capabilities to produce modern, engaging multi-touch experiences for Windows, iPad, Android, Chrome OS and Samsung SSP devices. At runtime, the visual display will always remain up-to-date, refreshing information acquired via the API on the fly. Throughout this entire process, the IntuiFace user doesn’t write a single line of code despite gaining access to thousands of available services at no additional cost.

“At IntuiLab, we are on a mission to democratize the creation of interactive and connected digital experiences, bringing this ability to non-developers of all stripes with our platform, IntuiFace,” said Vincent Encontre, IntuiLab’s CEO. “Our latest passion, 15 months in the making, has been to use machine learning to assist this very large non-developer community cross the Great API Wall, the last major barrier standing between this community and full creativity. API Explorer is our answer.”

Vincent Encontre added: “API Explorer is the first step in a series of upcoming machine learning-powered features designed to assist our creative users across all of their design and delivery workflows.”

API Explorer is a part of IntuiFace Version 6, details here, a major release that shipped on May 30 of this year. All IntuiFace users can try API Explorer, even those with a Free-level account. Accessible through IntuiFace Composer or standalone as a website, API Explorer complements IntuiFace’s existing ability to work with any .NET or JavaScript-accessible API. For more information about API Explorer, including a video-based demo, see this page. To evaluate IntuiFace for free, simply register here.

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