This blog post originally appeared on the Visa Developer Blog.
Recently, Authorize.Net announced their new repository on GitHub and posted several SDKs supporting the Authorize.Net API including Ruby, PHP, Java, and .Net. I was so excited for the team that I had to interview the man behind it all, Brian McManus, API Product Manager for Authorize.Net. Read our conversation below and feel free to ask any additional questions for Brian in the comments section.
Who are you and what is your role?
My name is Brian McManus and I’m responsible for Developer Experience at Authorize.Net and CyberSource, which includes everything from how our APIs are documented right through to the usability and functionality of the APIs themselves. APIs are the UI for developers.
Why are SDKs important for the Authorize.Net community?
SDKs often give developers their first experience with your API in their programming environment. Authorize.Net developers span a broad range of experience and expertise and it’s vital that we reflect that in the breadth of our API access options.
Why did you decide to launch Authorize.Net SDKs on GitHub?
This year we have refocused our efforts on providing the very best possible payment integration experience for developers. Part of that effort has been to review our SDKs, fix some long-standing issues and build a deeper relationship with Authorize.Net developers. From our community forums we learned a lot about developer attitudes towards evolving our products. In general, we found that developers tended to be understanding when they discovered a bug, but would get upset with our rate of releasing updates and frustrated that their suggested fixes were not being included. By hosting the SDKs on GitHub we are introducing a level of transparency that is expected today and are providing a vehicle for our developers to collaborate with us and with each other.
How has the community response been? Any pull requests yet?
We’ve been thrilled with the participation so far. We had our first pull request just hours after opening up the SDK repositories and that’s continued across the languages. We’re reviewing all these great contributions and have already merged a few.
Where do people go for more info?
The fastest way for people to learn more about Authorize.Net APIs is to try them out. We have an awesome new API Reference Guide athttp://developer.authorize.net/api/reference where you can do just that. You’ll also find more information about our SDKs by clicking on Client Libraries from that guide. And of course you can find us on GitHub at https://github.com/AuthorizeNet.
