Application Programming Interface(API) is a software interface that allows two applications to interact with each other without any user intervention or you can say API is a collection of software functions and procedures.
In very simple terms, API means a software code that can be accessed or executed. API is defined as a code that helps two different software to communicate and exchange data with each other.
Why APIs are used?
APIs are needed to bring applications together to perform a designed function built around sharing data and executing pre-defined processes. They work as the middle man, allowing developers to build new programmatic interactions between the various applications people and businesses use on a daily basis.
In a nutshell, you can say that instead of creating a particular tool again why not we can use the existing ones? Let's take the example of any food delivery or cab app. In this kind of app using a map is very common or you can say it is very essential for them so, instead of creating that particular tool from scratch they use the API of an existing tool and this is how an API works.
Types of APIs:
** ✨ Open APIs: ** Also known as "Public APIs". These APIs are publicly available and there are no restrictions to access them.
** ✨ Partner APIs: ** These APIs are not publicly available, so you need specific rights or licenses to access them
** ✨ Internal APIs: ** Internal or private. These APIs are `developed by companies to use in their internal systems. It helps you to enhance the productivity of your teams.
** ✨ Composite APIs: ** Composite APIs are the type of API that combines different data and service APIs
Web Services APIs
**SOAP: ** It defines messages in XML format used by web applications to communicate with each other.
**REST: ** It makes use of HTTP to GET, POST, PUT, or DELETE data. It is basically used to take advantage of the existing data.
**JSON-RPC: ** It uses JSON for data transfer and is a lightweight remote procedural call defining a few data structure types.
**XML-RPC: ** It is based on XML and uses HTTP for data transfer. This API is widely used to exchange information between two or more networks.
Examples of API Uses
In this modern era, everyone uses API. Some famous among all of these are:
Google Maps API
Weather API
Spotify API
Twitter API
PayPal API
HubSpot API
YouTube API
Amazon's API
Travel Booking
API Testing Tools
Postman is a plugin in Google Chrome, and it can be used for testing API services. It is a powerful HTTP client to check web services. For manual or exploratory testing, Postman is a good choice for testing API.
Ping-API is API testing that allows us to write test scripts in JavaScript and CoffeeScript to test your APIs. It will enable inspecting the HTTP API call with a complete request and response data.
vREST API tool provides an online solution for automated testing, mocking, automatic recording, and specification of APIs/RESTful APIs.
Features of API
It offers a valuable services (data, functions, audience).
It helps you to plan a business model.
Simple, flexible, and quickly adopted.
Managed and measured.
Offers a great developer support.
EndNote
Now, I hope I have cleared all the basic things regarding what an API is and its various shades. I have seen people struggling with this term.
Before saying bye let's summarize the whole blog in a very short and straight manner:
API is some code that you didn’t write yourself, and that code has some methods that you are allowed to use.
In context of web, an API is a part of a remote server that receives requests and sends responses when you navigate to a website in your browser.
API can take many forms depending upon where it is being used for example
Open APIs or Public APIs,Partner API,Internal Or Private API.In short API is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other.
So, that's all!
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