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GET PUT POST

On-Demand Delivery with the Postmates API

Welcome to GET PUT POST, a newsletter all about APIs.

This week, I caught up with Andrew Mager, Partner Engineer and Developer Advocate at Postmates. He shared some of the cool ways that app developers can build on-demand delivery into their apps. Afterwards, I added some tips for working with APIs and spreadsheets. Enjoy the interview!

What is Postmates and what can developers do with your API?

Postmates is an on-demand logistics company that moves physical goods around major metropolitan areas in under an hour.

The API enables business owners to utilize our fleet of over 20,000 couriers to deliver their products on any platform (their mobile app, their e-commerce website, etc).

You have some impressive launch partners. How did you work with them to design your API?

Since our API is self-serve, anyone can get started right away. In test mode, we have a simulated courier so you can build on our API quickly without dispatching real couriers until you’re ready.

We value the feedback from all of our partners, and the Starbucks integration made us realize that we should make tipping available to all API partners.

What have been some of the most interesting use cases since launch? How has the API evolved over time?

One of my favorite use cases is mytable, a place to get food delivered from local chefs in your community. Their whole operation is built on using the Postmates fleet for deliveries. A clothing brand in LA called MeUndies has enabled one hour delivery in their online store. One other example is Assi.st, which lets you hire a courier using your favorite messaging app. There’s also VNYL, which has a subscription service for vinyl records, and a record store that is on Postmates in Venice Beach, CA.

The API has evolved to include tutorials, community-contributed client libraries, shopping cart plugins, and its own Twitter account @postmatesdev.

What are some upcoming features you’re excited about?

We are constantly improving our API. One project I’m working on is around place data. A few partners have requested the ability to link to our venue pages via a search interface.

We recently just released a new endpoint that returns the GeoJSON geometry of our delivery zones.

What are 2–3 killer apps that someone should build using Postmates?

Craigslist with delivery. Stubhub with delivery. Coinstar with delivery. There are tons of possibilities.

Spreadsheets as GUIs for APIs

Spreadsheets are the easiest way to quickly edit structured data and are great for prototyping API schemas. Here are some resources for quickly hacking on APIs inside a spreadsheet:

  • Blockspring — Add dozens of API integrations in Excel and Google Spreadsheets. For example, you can make calls to Alchemy API for HTML/text classifications or to YouTube for video statistics. Check out thedocs for adding a custom integration.
  • Sheetsu — This tool works in the other direction and lets you turn a Google Spreadsheet into an API. Their web page headers are actually powered by a spreadsheet! You can also easily set up a web form and POST-ed data will be saved to a spreadsheet through a Sheetsu API.
  • Airtable — Airtable is an interesting hybrid between a database and a spreadsheet. You can create some pretty complex data schema through their slick GUI (tons of crazy examples) and then consume it through an API. They also have mobile apps for visualizing your databases.
  • Fieldbook — Similar to Airtable, this is another company with a spreadsheet-database hybrid. The UI looks like a simple spreadsheet, but you can easily create linked objects and interact with everything through a JSON API.

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