🥳 New module release: Hetzner Cloud OpenAPI Client

https://codeberg.org/small-tech/hetzner-cloud-openapi-client

This is an OpenAPI client for Node.js generated from the official Hetzner Cloud OpenAPI specification using Massimo.

Recently, while reviewing the code for Catalyst¹, I realised that the Hetzner library I was using was deprecated. The only other client library listed on Awesome Hetzner Cloud for JavaScript was updated seven years ago². So I did a bit of research and discovered that Hetzner has an official OpenAPI specification (useful little things that you can generate documentation as well as working client code from). I also discovered Massimo³, a lightweight and easy to use OpenAPI client generator.

So, anyway, a few minutes later, I had a working Node.js client generated but I thought I’d take a little more time to make it into a module in case anyone else wanted to use it.

In the process, I also created a simple web app example with Kitten⁴ where you can enter your Hetzner API key in a web interface, have it persisted to the default Kitten database⁴ and then carry out a simple call to list your servers. It’s 99 lines of code, including comments, in a single file. (Because Kitten loves you.)

The example uses the new/advanced class and event-based way of working with Kitten so you might find it interesting for that reason too (I haven’t had the chance to document this workflow properly yet). It also showcases Kitten’s Streaming HTML⁵ workflow, as well as its built-in support for semantic default styles and its first-class Markdown support.

You can see the source code for the Kitten example here:
https://codeberg.org/small-tech/hetzner-cloud-openapi-client/src/branch/main/example/index.page.js

The cool thing is that because the client is generated from the official Hetzner OpenAPI specification, it’s one command to update it should the specification change and you can be sure it matches exactly what’s in the API documentation.

Enjoy!

💕

CC @hetzner @lenzgr

¹ https://catalyst.small-web.org
² https://github.com/hetznercloud/awesome-hcloud#javascript
³ https://massimohttp.dev/
⁴ https://kitten.small-web.org/tutorials/persistence/
⁵ https://kitten.small-web.org/tutorials/streaming-html/

#Hetzner #HetznerCloud #API #OpenAPI #Massimo #NodeJS #JavaScript #servers #hosting #VPS #Kitten #SmallWeb #SmallTech

Because my Mastodon feed still shows me content in languages other than English and/or Malay, I think I will soon find ways to get a translation API and configure my instance to be able to translate any posts on my feed.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Translation #Language #Multilingual #SelfHosting #Tech #OpenSource #SocialMedia #Instance #ActivityPub #DigitalTools #API #Automation #Malaysia #Selangor #TechLife #Privacy #Community #Innovation

Are there any open APIs left?

One of the dreams of Web 2.0 was that website would speak unto website. An "Application Programming Interface" (API) would give programmatic access to structured data, allowing services to seamlessly integrate content from each other. Users would be able to quickly grab data from multiple sources and use them for their own purposes. No registration or API keys, no tedious EULAs or meetings. Just pure synergy!

Is that dream dead? If so, what killed it?

A decade ago, I posted a plea looking for Easy APIs Without Authentication with a follow up post two years later. I wanted some resources that students could use with minimal fuss. Are any of the APIs from 10 years ago still alive?

Alive

These ones are still around:

• Wikipedia - Yes! Still going strong.
• Police.uk - Yes! After a brief dalliance with API registration, it is now back to being completely free and open.
• Google Books ISBN - Yes! Obviously Google have forgotten it exists; otherwise it would have been killed off by now!
• iTunes Lookup - Yes! Possibly the only thing Apple don't charge a premium for.
• Pokémon API - and still receiving frequent updates.
• MusicBrainz - this Internet stalwart will never die.
• Open Notify - a collection of space APIs, although the code hasn't been updated in ages.

Dead

These have shuffled off this mortal coil:

• BBC Radio 1 - No.
• Twitter URL statistics - LOLSOB No.
• Star Wars API - No.
• British National Bibliography - No. Dead due, I think to the British Library's cyber attack.
• Football Data - gone.

API Key Required

These are still alive, but you either need to pay or register to use them:

• Google Location
• Spotify
• OpenMovieDB
• Open Air Quality

What Happened?

Something something … enshittification … blah blah … zero interest rate phenomenon … yadda yadda our incredible journey …

But back in the land of rationality, I've had a lots of experiences running APIs and helping people who run them. The closure and lockdown of APIs usually comes down to one or more of the following.

APIs cost money to run. Yes, even the static ones have a non-zero cost. That's fine if you're prepared to endless subsidise them - but it is hard to justify if there's no return on investment. Anyway, who is using all this bandwidth? Which leads on to:

Lack of analytics. Yes, I know tracking is the devil, but it is hard to build a service if you don't know who is using it. Sure, you can see traffic, but you can't tell if it is useful to the end consumer, or what value you can share. There's no way to communicate with an anonymous consumer. Which, of course, takes us to the next barrier:

Communication is key. If you need to change your API, there's no way to tell users that a change is coming. That might be the announcement of a deprecation, an outage, or an enhancement. You can try smuggling error messages into your responses and hoping someone notices a failing service somewhere - but it's much easier to email everyone who has an API key. And you know what else keys are good for?

Stopping abuse. It'd be nice if everyone played nice online; but some people are raging arseholes. Being able to throttle bad actors (figuratively or literally) is a desirable feature. On a resource constrained service, you sometimes have to put rules in place.

Still, if you know of any good open APIs which don't require registration, and that you think will survive until 2036, please drop a link in the comments.

2026 continues to be a good year for BastilleBSD!

We've onboarded our third training cohort this month, API development continues to mature and the UI is nearly ready for wider testing.

Let us know here if you'd like to help beta test the API and web interface on your Bastille hosts.

#BastilleBSD #FreeBSD #2026 #Training #API

2026 continues to be a good year for BastilleBSD!

We've onboarded our third training cohort this month, API development continues to mature and the UI is nearly ready for wider testing.

Let us know here if you'd like to help beta test the API and web interface on your Bastille hosts.

#BastilleBSD #FreeBSD #2026 #Training #API

Are there any open APIs left?

One of the dreams of Web 2.0 was that website would speak unto website. An "Application Programming Interface" (API) would give programmatic access to structured data, allowing services to seamlessly integrate content from each other. Users would be able to quickly grab data from multiple sources and use them for their own purposes. No registration or API keys, no tedious EULAs or meetings. Just pure synergy!

Is that dream dead? If so, what killed it?

A decade ago, I posted a plea looking for Easy APIs Without Authentication with a follow up post two years later. I wanted some resources that students could use with minimal fuss. Are any of the APIs from 10 years ago still alive?

Alive

These ones are still around:

• Wikipedia - Yes! Still going strong.
• Police.uk - Yes! After a brief dalliance with API registration, it is now back to being completely free and open.
• Google Books ISBN - Yes! Obviously Google have forgotten it exists; otherwise it would have been killed off by now!
• iTunes Lookup - Yes! Possibly the only thing Apple don't charge a premium for.
• Pokémon API - and still receiving frequent updates.
• MusicBrainz - this Internet stalwart will never die.
• Open Notify - a collection of space APIs, although the code hasn't been updated in ages.

Dead

These have shuffled off this mortal coil:

• BBC Radio 1 - No.
• Twitter URL statistics - LOLSOB No.
• Star Wars API - No.
• British National Bibliography - No. Dead due, I think to the British Library's cyber attack.
• Football Data - gone.

API Key Required

These are still alive, but you either need to pay or register to use them:

• Google Location
• Spotify
• OpenMovieDB
• Open Air Quality

What Happened?

Something something … enshittification … blah blah … zero interest rate phenomenon … yadda yadda our incredible journey …

But back in the land of rationality, I've had a lots of experiences running APIs and helping people who run them. The closure and lockdown of APIs usually comes down to one or more of the following.

APIs cost money to run. Yes, even the static ones have a non-zero cost. That's fine if you're prepared to endless subsidise them - but it is hard to justify if there's no return on investment. Anyway, who is using all this bandwidth? Which leads on to:

Lack of analytics. Yes, I know tracking is the devil, but it is hard to build a service if you don't know who is using it. Sure, you can see traffic, but you can't tell if it is useful to the end consumer, or what value you can share. There's no way to communicate with an anonymous consumer. Which, of course, takes us to the next barrier:

Communication is key. If you need to change your API, there's no way to tell users that a change is coming. That might be the announcement of a deprecation, an outage, or an enhancement. You can try smuggling error messages into your responses and hoping someone notices a failing service somewhere - but it's much easier to email everyone who has an API key. And you know what else keys are good for?

Stopping abuse. It'd be nice if everyone played nice online; but some people are raging arseholes. Being able to throttle bad actors (figuratively or literally) is a desirable feature. On a resource constrained service, you sometimes have to put rules in place.

Still, if you know of any good open APIs which don't require registration, and that you think will survive until 2036, please drop a link in the comments.

I'm a senior software developer who is proficient in #ruby #elixir #sql #java #linux #clang #javascript #python #postgresql #postgis #mqtt #rabbitmq

I search for a #job and I reside currently in #austria #vienna and I'm fluent in #german and #english

I love #foss #opensource and #rest #api

Let's #getfedihired #gethired #hiring

I'm a senior software developer who is proficient in #ruby #elixir #sql #java #linux #clang #javascript #python #postgresql #postgis #mqtt #rabbitmq

I search for a #job and I reside currently in #austria #vienna and I'm fluent in #german and #english

I love #foss #opensource and #rest #api

Let's #getfedihired #gethired #hiring

Because my Mastodon feed still shows me content in languages other than English and/or Malay, I think I will soon find ways to get a translation API and configure my instance to be able to translate any posts on my feed.

#Mastodon #Fediverse #Translation #Language #Multilingual #SelfHosting #Tech #OpenSource #SocialMedia #Instance #ActivityPub #DigitalTools #API #Automation #Malaysia #Selangor #TechLife #Privacy #Community #Innovation

Iconify is an #opensource library of icons - they also have an API which you can use to get the icon SVG.

https://icon-sets.iconify.design/

#SVG #API #webdev #frontend #css

Iconify is an #opensource library of icons - they also have an API which you can use to get the icon SVG.

https://icon-sets.iconify.design/

#SVG #API #webdev #frontend #css

Web Authentication defines an #API for creating and using securely and smoothly public key-based credentials in Web #browsers.
This 3rd level adds client features that make passkeys easier to use and help transition from passwords via conditional mediation (learn more at https://passkeys.dev). It also enables cross-origin iframe support for use cases like federated identity and payments #WebAuthn

▶️ https://www.w3.org/TR/webauthn-3 #timetoimplement

Feedback wlc: https://github.com/w3c/webauthn/issues

Web Authentication defines an #API for creating and using securely and smoothly public key-based credentials in Web #browsers.
This 3rd level adds client features that make passkeys easier to use and help transition from passwords via conditional mediation (learn more at https://passkeys.dev). It also enables cross-origin iframe support for use cases like federated identity and payments #WebAuthn

▶️ https://www.w3.org/TR/webauthn-3 #timetoimplement

Feedback wlc: https://github.com/w3c/webauthn/issues

Air Quality API
Elevation API
Flood API
Geocoding API
Marine API
#Satellite Radiation API
Climate API
Seasonal Forecast API
Ensemble #Weather API
Historical Weather API
Historical Forecast API
Previous Model Runs #API

Simple APIs, free to use non-commercially, global coverage, up to 1 km resolution, usage without API keys…

https://open-meteo.com/en/docs

So when companies try to monetize everything...

I have an electric car and a charger at home, also a distributor to prevent over current. Due to high prices during daytime I have the possibility in the distributor to set a schedule when my charge box should be available.

So far so good, but ...
I can only set different time schedules and not days, so weekends I'm stuck with my week schedule, even though the price is lower and I could charge my car 24h.

I sen't a mail to the support and asked for that config option, and yes you guessed it right.

-Sure, that is possible with our PRO subscription.

Thank you and f**k off.

I'm no developer but with Burp Suite, Python and some cups of coffee I now have written an API parser in python that will accept command line args.

myprog.py --disable / enable

now I can schedule with crontab my own without your PRO subscription.

HA!

#python #API #electriccar #charging

So when companies try to monetize everything...

I have an electric car and a charger at home, also a distributor to prevent over current. Due to high prices during daytime I have the possibility in the distributor to set a schedule when my charge box should be available.

So far so good, but ...
I can only set different time schedules and not days, so weekends I'm stuck with my week schedule, even though the price is lower and I could charge my car 24h.

I sen't a mail to the support and asked for that config option, and yes you guessed it right.

-Sure, that is possible with our PRO subscription.

Thank you and f**k off.

I'm no developer but with Burp Suite, Python and some cups of coffee I now have written an API parser in python that will accept command line args.

myprog.py --disable / enable

now I can schedule with crontab my own without your PRO subscription.

HA!

#python #API #electriccar #charging