API Integrations

[devinhalladay]

Overview

An important feature for Schema is the ability for designers to pull content from an API endpoint and insert it into their designs. This works in tandem with #1 component variables.

The idea is to allow a user to enter an API endpoint, then select the properties they'd like to insert into their selected text layers. If an instance is selected, the user would be able to associate a property with a selected text layer via something like a dropdown.

Open Questions

• Can we accommodate authenticated endpoints, and do so securely?
• Can users "subscribe" to an API (eg. similar to a webhook) and receive updates in their file when the data changes?
• Can developers use this as a tool to bring designs in line with a production data model?
• Can API responses alter the number or type of components on the canvas? Eg. if I get a response with an array posts[] with 7 children, and I currently have 5 Component/Post components in an auto-layout container; can we automatically insert 2 more Component/Post components and fill them with the newly added posts? Basically this would mean turning Figma into the front-end for a CMS, which is kinda cool.