APIs are a big deal. They’re the secret sauce behind what makes our digital world go ’round. It stands for Application Programming Interface and is a set of routines, protocols, or tools that allow two different software programs to talk to one another. APIs have been around since the early 90s when they were needed for computer networks to share data with other computers on the network. These days, APIs make it possible for everything from your smartwatch to your car dashboard display to become smarter and more connected. Here’s what you need to know about APIs.
Things To Know About APIs
What Is An API And What Does It Do?
An API is a set of requirements that govern how one piece of software communicates and interacts with other pieces. It means an application programming interface. APIs are the way programs talk to each other over the internet, allowing users to make requests or provide information in order to get something done online.
One popular use case is when you visit social media websites like Facebook or Twitter through your web browser. When doing it, this program (the user’s preferred browser) will send all kinds of data back and forth between itself and the website it’s visiting because these two websites have an agreement on what kind of data they’ll both accept from each other.
How To Use The API
In order to use the API, you will need to go through a couple of steps. First, you’ll have to register for a key. Then you can access your API by using the endpoint URL and pasting in your API Key where it says “key”.
For example, if I were trying to use this API from your own website you would put your API key into the endpoint like so: `API.chirpstory.com/stories?count=30&linkUrl=${entryLink}`” This means that instead of taking you directly to Chirpstory’s live feed page (which is what you want) they’re going to return 30 results about ${entryLink}. It works with APIs in that it will have to be unique, so if your API key was already being used it would return an error.
So there you go! That’s all it takes to use this API in its simplest form. You can always take a look at the documentation here: [Chirpstory Documentation](link) for more complex examples and other things that you might want to do with their API.
APIs Can Be Monitored
APIs can be and need to be monitored. API performance is an increasingly important factor in the success of web-based applications, so having a solution that provides API monitoring capabilities will help measure your API’s health and identify emerging problems before they affect users.
This can be achieved by using third-party tools to monitor key metrics related to API calls such as response time, error rate, etc. A good place to start looking for these API monitoring tools is online app stores like Chrome Web Store or Firefox Marketplace where you don’t need any special approvals from IT teams prior to use it within your organization because all code is hosted on Google Cloud Platform itself which means no installation required. However, going with an app that is specifically designed and developed for this is always a better option because it will simply work better for you. There are plenty of top ERP vendors that can help ensure your investment pays dividends.
Other companies also have API management platforms that offer monitoring capabilities. For example, Apigee is an API platform for digital business and Mashape provides a marketplace with over 45,000 APIs.
What Are The Main Concerns About APIs?
The main concerns about APIs include security and speed. API providers must protect users from malicious attacks, such as phishing or hacking, at all costs. Additionally, since API services rely on the internet to function properly, the load time of each page may be slower than usual if there is an influx of traffic for any reason (such as a viral post).
- Security: Ensuring that your API service does not get hacked into by criminals who can use it to collect data about customers
- Speed: How quickly your content loads, when accessed via API, may be impacted by how many people are accessing across different devices simultaneously
- Phishing: A fraudulent attempt to obtain sensitive data from users such as credit card details, passwords, and usernames by pretending as a trustworthy being in an electronic communication
- Hacking: The practice of attempting to breach a computer system, network, or physical infrastructure for the purpose of manipulating data and accessing resources.
- Viral Post: A post that suddenly becomes popular on social media as it spreads rapidly across different feeds.
- Inbound Traffic: The number of requests to your API service from external sources, such as customers or other API services
- Outbound Traffic: Requests sent by your API service to another API service (for example, API-to-API requests)
The Benefits Of Using An API
The benefits of using API are numerous, but they all come down to how API can make your life easier. It’s essentially a tool that makes it easy for you to discover and access resources on the web without having to know exactly where those resources live or what data formats they use.
API has become an integral part of software development over the last decade. It’s hard to imagine today’s Internet world without them being present at some level in our applications, which are becoming more connected every day through things like IoT (Internet of Things).
Without API, developers would have had difficulty getting their apps off the ground because there simply wouldn’t be enough online content out there with open API endpoints available for them to leverage within their own app suite. API also makes it easier for developers to make updates and changes to their apps since they don’t always need direct access to the source code of an app.
It also allows companies with software applications to communicate with other web services, so users can interact with them directly through their own personalized account interface.
Terms You Should Know About APIs
The terms API and API Key can be used interchangeably. An API key is a piece of information that helps an application identify who you are. A key often includes a username and password combination that is used to authenticate API requests.
- API Key identifies you
- An API is a protocol intended for building software applications
- API Documentation helps you learn how to use them correctly
- The two standard API documentation formats are RESTful API documentation and RPC API documentation.
Endnote
APIs are an integral part of the Internet which is why you have to know what it does, how to use it, and most importantly how to monitor it. There are both concerns and benefits, and once you know the main terms and read this whole article it will all be clear. You can always learn more!
