Your software may depend on another service for payments, addresses, bookings or customer records. If that API changes or becomes unavailable, the application needs a way to identify failed work and recover without creating incorrect transactions.
Find out where the request failed
Check relevant service notices, response codes, authentication and rate limits. Determine whether requests were rejected, delayed or processed without a response returning. Avoid blindly resending transactions where duplicate processing could cause harm.
Practical checks
- Log enough information to trace failed requests.
- Define retry and duplicate-prevention behaviour.
- Show staff which records need attention.
- Agree reconciliation when the service becomes available again.
Questions and answers
Can you guarantee another provider will stay available?
No. Your application can be designed to handle interruptions more clearly, but an external provider’s availability remains outside the developer’s control.
What about a provider retiring an API version?
Track announcements and version dependencies. Plan and test the replacement connection before the retirement date rather than waiting for live requests to fail.
Discuss your existing software
Digital Solutions can review the available system and discuss an appropriate next step. Feasibility, access requirements and the scope of any chargeable investigation are agreed before work proceeds.
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