Articles by Shawn Pyle
June 11 2024
An API a Developer Can Love
Tithe.ly is built on numerous internal Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). These are the building blocks for our main application. Tithe.ly Integrations is primarily focused on getting Tithe.ly Giving data to external services. This requires my team to interface with internal and external APIs. We deal with both excellent and sub-par APIs. I’m going to share some of the things that make me love an API and why you should do it.
February 19 2024
Specifying APIs for the Future
In a recent project, our team was tasked with creating a new API. Many of the Tithe.ly engineering teams already had specifications for their internal APIs using OpenAPI. API specifications provide the contract between back-end API development and front-end API consumption. With this contract firmly in place, both back-end and front-end teams could work in parallel to provide the finished project.
September 14 2023
Lessons Learned as a Tech Lead for the Past 1.5 Years
For the last 1.5 years, I have been a Tech Lead for the Tithe.ly Integrations team. During that time there have been changes: someone has left the team, others have joined, projects have changed status, and priorities have shifted. In the ever-changing landscape of software development for a pseudo-startup like Tithe.ly, it can be difficult to lead well. I have learned a few things along the way that have helped me to be a better tech lead (I hope) and I think that these might help you, no matter what role or industry you’re in.
June 2 2021
Rails Dependency Licenses
We recently had to evaluate all of our repositories for dependency licenses that would potentially cause problems, e.g. mimemagic breaking Rails. It’s better to be proactive about these things, so we decided to do this during a recent coding cool down.
March 5 2021
Rails Engine Development
For the last year, the Integrations Team has been busy working rebuilding our legacy integrations from scratch in Ruby on Rails. We launched with an integration to send Tithe.ly Giving data to QuickBooks Online (QBO), followed by Tithe.ly ChMS, and Raiser’s Edge. We are about to release integrations to FellowshipOne, Shelby Arena, Breeze ChMS, Minitry Platform as well as planned integrations for a handful of others.
March 2 2021
Transitioning to a 100% remote position
I started working at Tithe.ly close to a year ago. I transitioned from a 100% in the office to 100% remote work. Here are some of the things I would have like to have known going into it.