  Context: Cryptographic APIs are said to be not usable and researchers suggest
to add example code to the documentation. Aim: We wanted to create a free
platform for cryptographic code examples that improves the usability and
security of created applications by non security experts. Method: We created
the open-source web platform CryptoExamples and conducted a controlled
experiment where 58 students added symmetric encryption to a Java program. We
then measured the usability and security. Results: The participants who used
the platform were not only significantly more effective (+73 %) but also their
code contained significantly less possible security vulnerabilities (-66 %).
Conclusions: With CryptoExamples the gap between hard to change API
documentation and the need for complete and secure code examples can be closed.
Still, the platform needs more code examples.
