The State Changers meeting focused on several technical aspects related to API responses, authentication processes, securing webhooks, dynamic dropdowns, and UI considerations. Here are the key insights:
1. API Responses: The State Changers discussed the security implications of API responses and when to have/not have a response on your API calls. They noted that determining the usefulness of information for the front end is key when deciding what responses to keep in API calls, balancing performance, information sharing, and security. 2. Authentication: The meeting delved into the process of authenticated access, ensuring a user’s association with specific items or models. This is to prevent insecure direct object references (IDOR), and the method demonstrated involved a sequence of gets for clarity and ease of understanding, despite better performant ways being available. 3. Security of Webhooks: They explored the use of custom headers in webhooks to enhance security and discussed how to retrieve data from those headers without having to create additional variables. The focus was on using key-value pairs in an HTTP headers object for easy data access. 4. Dynamic Dropdowns and UI Considerations: Lastly, there was a discussion on creating dynamic dropdowns or select fields for user interface. It was highlighted that an extended list in a dropdown might not result in good UI experience. A more search-like interface was suggested as an alternative for a large number of items. Additionally, it was recommended to look at how well-functioning apps solve similar issues to help guide the UI design process. Software tools and broad programming concepts discussed throughout the meeting include: "Xano", "WeWeb", "Javascript", "API calls", "status codes", "HTTP headers", "webhooks," and "UI design".
(Source: Office Hours 2/17 )
