How Thriftly Works¶

Thriftly allows you to publish existing application functions, previously locked within your desktop apps and local servers, to the web as multi-protocol web APIs. To get started, you add Thriftly-related code libraries, directives, and attributes to your existing application, using the tools provided when you download and install Thriftly Developer.

Note the using Thriftly.Server directive and PublishedAttribute. These small pieces of code transform your functions into Thriftly APIs.¶

Afterward, you connect your updated application services to our series of geographically-dispersed API gateways, using our Thriftly Deployment application. This transforms your existing functions into publicly available, internet-based APIs, allowing you to call those functions over the web and integrate them into new applications.

An example Thriftly API endpoint, available on the web

Web-hosted API endpoints, served over our Thriftly Server and Gateways, allow modern application developers to easily call your existing application and integrate old code into new apps.¶

The tools you’ll use to create Thriftly APIs are largely language-agnostic, meaning you can create web APIs from existing applications and functions written in most any programming language. Currently, Thriftly allows you to create APIs from .NET/C#, Java, DataFlex, and Delphi applications. We plan to support additional programming languages in the future, based on customer demand.

Additionally, Thriftly supports multi-protocol handling, allowing you to connect the same API to different applications using different protocols (request-response standards). For example, you could connect your API to a web application using the JSON-RPC protocol and connect the same API to a mobile application using the REST protocol, just by making minor changes within your code or Thriftly itself. (For more on why this feature is a big deal, click here.)

A detailed Thriftly deployment diagram, with Thriftly APIs at the center

Thriftly makes it easy to connect the same API to different applications using different protocols.¶

But API creation and deployment isn’t where Thriftly stops. Thriftly also includes advanced API testing, security, and management tools. For example, our built-in JSON Web Token (JWT) support allows you to quickly secure your API calls, and our easy integration with Microsoft Azure API Management allows you to more extensively control, monitor, and monetize your APIs.

We encourage you to install Thriftly Developer and Deployment (using the instructions in the Getting Started with Thriftly Developer and Getting Started with Thriftly Deployment sections), explore our docs and Additional Resources, and Contact Us if you have any questions. We’re happy to help as you get started with Thriftly!