Adding CSV parsing and feature validation

by Stephen

I recently improved the csv parsing capability of Real Email after noticing it was getting much more usage than I thought.

Real Email is a developer focused email validation service, allowing you to check if an email address is real, before sending anything and possibly hurting your email reputation through bouned emails.

csv parser

Feature validation

I started to notice a lot of the usage followed the pattern of a bulk load. Often usage would start testing lots of addresses quickly for a few hours then stop. My documentation about the the shell style parsing was one of my pages with the largest viewing time. The access logs also showed the usage had the user agent 'curl' which is the program used in the shell scripts.

Armed with this information I knew it was time to improve the UX and build an in-page csv validator. Where the user could upload any csv file to parse.

I was pleased to see the very next day it was being used.

So if your not sure what features to invest it, look for the signs. And if you have any good feature validation tips or stories, please share.