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Why is my API taking so long ?

· 3 min read
Nitesh

I've been developing a SAAS (Software as a Service) application recently in which doctors can onboard their patients onto our platform. Our platform has a feature that allows it to be integrated with other frequently used software solutions. In this functionality, doctor can choose a third-party tool (in this case: Google Sheets) and can export the platform data. Here's where there's a problem that platform is taking too long to export the data, which becomes a major issue for Doctors. Consequently, a user story is produced and given to me. See how I approached this.

Problem​

response is way too slow when we clicked on export button to transfer data to Google Sheets, which is a serious issue for doctors. Below is a diagram of the visual flow. Therefore, when the doctor clicks the export button, it stucks there.

Below GIF shows the slow response when Exorting the Data​

so below GIF shows that when doctor clicks on the button to export the data, it is just showing Exporting... for long time.

frontend

Brainstorm​

How and what data do I gather?​

  • I start by opening the form's frontend, where doctor's are exporting the data.
  • I looked at the network tab and noticed that the backend Rest api's average response time was longer than usual.
  • Let's have a look at the Rest api's design and sequence diagram, which we are using to export the data to google sheet.

Export Data API's UML sequence diagram is shown below​

current_sequence_diagram

Let's extract a flaw in this design​

  • currently there is only one API which is responsible for 2 tasks:
    • creating the sheet id in google sheet
    • second is pushing the patient's data from our platform to google sheet.
  • so the problem is our api design is not following the single resposibility principle which says one function/api should perform only single action
  • due to this our API response time is high as well code is not much maintainable
  • second is our frontend is also performing 2 tasks in single click.

Solution​

Let's see what we need to do in order to solve this issue​

  • first on backend side we have to break down our API into 2 seprate API's:

    • so first API is only responsible for creating a google sheet and return the sheet id
    • second API is only responsible to push data of patient's record to given sheet_id

  • second we have to change our frontend part

    • so instead of only one button we first create a button to create the sheet id
    • second button is responsible for sync/exporting the data

Below is the final Sequence Diagram​

new_sequence_diagram

Below is the final/new frontend for Exporting data​

frontend

you can read about Single Responsibility principle here → single responsibility principle