Highlight integrates into your ecosystem using our public API
The recent product release of CAST Highlight introduces our public API to let you share unprecedented Software Analytics and code-level health metrics with the rest of your technology ecosystem as well as automate actions on our platform. In this article we’ll review the API and what kind of new consumption usages it enables for Highlight users.
What is a REST API?
According to Sam Deering, Web Developer and author at SitePoint, a “REST API defines a set of functions which developers can perform requests and receive responses via HTTP protocol such as GET and POST“. In other words, an API allows you to interact with software to get data (in our context, application information such as metrics, scores, benchmark, etc.) and post actions to the platform (e.g. invite a user, rename a domain, etc.), all PROGRAMMATICALLY. And in the era of DevOps and automation, the API is a game-changer in the product. It pairs perfectly with our command line, which automates and integrates code scans into your CI/CD process.
Since a REST API generally uses a standard protocol (HTTPS) and data format (JSON) to communicate with other products, the good news is that it is technology-independent by design and offers unlimited integration capabilities, whether you know Java, Javascript, C# or PHP. But yeah, you’ll need to know a bit about coding to properly use our API.
To illustrate the power of an API and the great opportunity for Highlight to expand and populate other tools with our unique data, below is a list of integration examples you could implement within your organization for Highlight. We’d love to get your thoughts and ideas on other possible integrations you’d think valuable in your context. We’re always happy to help!
You could post every morning at 8am in your Slack team channel the latest scores (Software Resiliency, Agility, Elegance, Cloud Readiness, etc.) for the product that your devs are responsible for.  We’re actually doing exactly the same Slack integration within the Highlight product team to fix cloud roadblocks found in the last nightly scan.
We’ve already used the API to integrate Highlight metrics into leading EA/ITPM solutions. Once the metrics are pushed to these solutions, the options are limitless – link application health with business criticality, process, data and capabilities. Quickly identify which applications are most important to the business but need additional attention due to their overall health. This will be a growing area for us and our partners.
Create one Jira ticket per Cloud/PaaS blocker found for an application – list all source files where occurrences have been detected and assign it to your development team to fix during the next sprint.
Populate your portfolio with an existing list of users and keep their status synced over time. This API usage dramatically reduces the time to onboard the product and ensures the information is always synced (in case of new applications, domain structure changes, new users, etc.).
Finally, you could also proudly display your scores as a widget or a badge on your website, like we just did below with a few lines of good old Javascript (and jQuery). Could look like this one below…
What is available now in the Highlight API
The public API is pretty recent in Highlight but already exposes a solid list of indicators you can integrate in your tool and product ecosystem.
List of objects, metrics and scores accessible from the API
– list of applications, domains and users
– application sizing metrics like total lines of code, files, back-fired function points, FTEs, etc.
– application KPIs and scores like Business Impact, Software Resiliency, Agility, Elegance, Cloud Maturity, Software Maintenance Estimate, etc.
– Specifically for the Cloud, and since the last product release, the list of cloud requirements and source files where these cloud roadblocks have been found
– More to come soon…
List of actions possible through the API
– create and edit applications
– create and edit domains (app containers)
– invite users
– launch a scan campaign
– more to come soon…
Want to try the API for your specific needs? The documentation is available here.
Use CAST Highlight’s REST API to leverage Software Intelligence into your current practices. You may have several repositories to manage your programs, organization, processes, capabilities, applications,  technologies. In a world where software is everywhere and evolves as fast pace, fresh & accurate software metrics become a must-have – a prerequisite to make informed decisions. Our REST APIs represents a great opportunity to reinforce  your PPM, EA, APM or ITSM practices with fact-based insights about your applications (check out how our partners are getting benefits from it).