DR-301a · Module 1

Source API Integration

3 min read

Every data source speaks a different language. RSS feeds deliver XML. REST APIs return JSON. Web pages serve HTML that changes layout without warning. Databases expose SQL or proprietary query interfaces. Building a production collection system means writing adapters that normalize all of these into a single internal format. The adapter pattern is the architectural backbone — one adapter per source type, one internal schema for everything downstream.

RSS is the simplest integration and still one of the most valuable. Most news sites, blogs, government agencies, and academic journals publish RSS feeds. An RSS adapter pulls the feed, parses each entry's title, summary, link, and publication date, and writes it to the storage layer. Setup time: fifteen minutes per source. Maintenance: near zero — the RSS spec has not changed in twenty years. If your target source publishes RSS, start there. API integration is more powerful but more fragile — endpoints change, authentication schemes rotate, and rate limits throttle your collection during peak periods.

Do This

  • RSS feeds for news, blogs, and publications — simple, stable, near-zero maintenance
  • REST APIs for structured data sources — company databases, financial data, social platforms
  • Webhooks for real-time event sources — get pushed updates instead of polling for them
  • Web scrapers as a last resort for sources with no API — brittle but sometimes the only option

Avoid This

  • Scrape a site that offers an API — the API is more reliable and less likely to break
  • Assume API authentication will remain static — build credential rotation into your adapter
  • Ignore rate limits — a banned IP means zero data from that source indefinitely
  • Hardcode source URLs in your collection logic — put them in the source registry where they can be updated without code changes