Hey everyone, I'm curious about how folks are creating integrations with platforms that lack public APIs. I find that typical browser automations can be quite fragile and require constant maintenance. I'm diving into this area, aiming to build stable and low-latency API endpoints for these platforms. If anyone has tackled this issue or knows of effective solutions, I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks!
4 Answers
Sometimes, if you really need access, just asking nicely—and maybe offering some cash—can work wonders. For instance, we’ve managed to link an external SaaS product, which has no public API, to our internal apps by getting them to set up an SSH proxy to their MySQL database for us.
You know, we're stuck maintaining those fragile automations too. It's pretty much a given if you're going to work without official APIs.
There are actually plenty of ways to integrate even when a platform doesn’t expose public APIs. Many apps still have hidden APIs you can discover by analyzing their web traffic. While companies may not like this, as long as you have valid credentials and you're not accessing secured data, they usually can't do much to stop you. Sure, browser integration is an option, but it's definitely not the most reliable. Fair warning, APIs can be just as fragile if the provider restricts access.
Are you suggesting scraping? Yeah, it’s definitely not ideal, but often it’s your only option. Generally, though, it’s best to avoid it if you can.
If you're looking to stop spending so much time on that, definitely reach out!