NPR is moving away from separate content management systems and towards an API-first approach called CAPE (Create Anywhere, Publish Everywhere) that allows content to be created and managed in any system but published through APIs. The key principles of CAPE are to separate content from display, make content modular and portable, design all features as APIs, prioritize speed in APIs, use search indexes through APIs rather than databases, enable granular security controls, and design for user queries rather than data models.

1. NPR API
Irakli Nadareishvili
Director of Engineering, Digital Media, @NPR
Twitter: @inadarei @NPRTechTeam

2. Create Once, Publish Everywhere
● Build content management systems (CMS),
not web publishing tools (WPT)
● Separate content from display
● Ensure content modularity
● Ensure content portability
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3. Today:
No Single CMS
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4. CAPE: Create Anywhere, Publish Everywhere
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5. Create Anywhere, Publish Everywhere
● Separate content from display
● Ensure content modularity
● Ensure content portability
● Everything is an API
● Speed is a feature
● API is a search index
● Granular security
● Design for user queries, not: data models
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6. Everything Is an API
à la Jeff Bezos + Amazon. Do not create access
dualities. All features and content must be
accessible through an API.
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7. Speed Is a Feature
Faster the API, the more it gets used. Slow APIs do
not survive.
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8. API: Search Index
For a distributed publishing system, API is the data
integration point, not: the database of record.
Search engine is a great backend for such API.
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9. Granular Security
Publishers need control on a single content item
level. Sometimes: even on the level of assets of a
content item.
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10. Design user queries,
not: data models
Forget what they taught you in CS classes. UML is
for Suits. Stateless Inputs and Responses are all
that matter.
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11. Create Anywhere, Publish Everywhere
● Separate content from display
● Ensure content modularity
● Ensure content portability
● Everything is an API
● Speed is a feature
● API is a search index
● Granular security
● Design for user queries, not: data models
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12. Questions?
Irakli Nadareishvili
twitter: @inadarei
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