This title is virtually given after a fulltime of frustration from not understanding Application Programming Interface, until I got to understand how simple it is that an API is simply a connector between two communicating devices. Oh damn! Had I known!
What is an API?
API the acronym for Application Programming Interface.
API stands for Application Programming Interface and it’s quite simply a piece of technology that allows two different systems to talk to each other.
In the process of improving your applications, you will eventually come across a term like API.
It is impossible to imagine modern development without APIs. This term has many definitions, but we will try to explain it as simple as possible.
API is like an open language, the rules of which are shared by a certain service. You can teach your application the rules of this language, so it can communicate with the service and access all the functions and data that the service is ready to share.
Speaking a little more formally, API is an interface that allows your application to interact with an external service using a simple set of commands.
You do not need to know the internal logic of the service, just send a simple command and the service will return the necessary data.
For example, if you need to contact the news aggregator API and get ten of today’s most popular news from it, you refer to the “topnews” command (which the service described in advance in the public domain), and in response, the service will send you the latest collection of sensations.
Why are APIs important?
If there were no APIs, the functionality of your applications would be limited, and the development time would increase significantly since any function that is not implemented as a module of one of the programming languages would have to be developed independently.
APIs tie disparate applications together, allowing them to complement each other.
The hotel selection service uses an external API for recognizing and cataloging photos of rooms, the same service itself through the API provides an opportunity to select and book hotel rooms, thus enriching the functionality of many travel applications.
If there were no API, each application would be limited to a narrow list of its own functions without the possibility of expanding it to something that others have already invented and used for a long time.
Benefits of APIs
- APIs allow you to save time when developing and help not to invent a bicycle.
- It is much more efficient and more convenient to use the capabilities of one of the APIs than to try to independently implement similar functionality.
- Moreover, it will be problematic to get some functions and data other than through the API (for example, a weather forecast, a thematic selection of news or a high-quality translation from almost any language).
- APIs recharge your applications with the latest technology. With APIs, you can teach your application the latest image recognition and natural language processing methods.
Types of APIs
There are four main types of APIs:
- Open APIs: Also known as Public APIs, there are no restrictions to access these types of APIs because they are publicly available.
- Partner APIs: One needs specific rights or licenses in order to access this type of APIs because they are not available to the public.
- Internal APIs: Also known as Private APIs, only internal systems expose this type of API, which is, therefore, less known and often meant to be used inside the company. The company uses this type of API among the different internal teams to be able to improve its products and services.
- Composite APIs: This type of API combines different data and service APIs. It is a sequence of tasks that run synchronously as a result of the execution and not at the request of a task. Its main uses are to speed up the process of execution and improve the performance of the listeners in the web interfaces. You can read more about API types here: Types of API
References:
How to use an API. Rapid API: rapidapi.com/blog/how-to-use-an-api