Improving Web API Usage Logging
Rediana Ko\c{c}i, Xavier Franch, Petar Jovanovic, Alberto Abell\'o

TL;DR
This paper explores the potential of WAPI usage logs for analysis, highlights challenges caused by log format issues, and proposes solutions to improve log quality for better consumer behavior insights.
Contribution
It distinguishes between development and production logs, analyzes their potential uses, and demonstrates the impact of log format on analysis through a case study.
Findings
Log format significantly affects analysis quality
Proper log formatting enables better consumer behavior insights
Addressing log quality issues improves WAPI usability evaluation
Abstract
A Web API (WAPI) is a type of API whose interaction with its consumers is done through the Internet. While being accessed through the Internet can be challenging, mostly when WAPIs evolve, it gives providers the possibility to monitor their usage, and understand and analyze consumers' behavior. Currently, WAPI usage is mostly logged for traffic monitoring and troubleshooting. Even though they contain invaluable information regarding consumers' behavior} they are not sufficiently used by providers. In this paper, we first consider two phases of the application development lifecycle, and based on them we distinguish two different types of usage logs, namely development logs and production logs. For each of them we show the potential analyses (e.g., WAPI usability evaluation, consumers' needs identification) that can be performed, as well as the main impediments, that may be caused by the…
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