Application Programming Interface , a quick introduction
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The document provides an overview of application programming interfaces (APIs), detailing their history from the early days of computing in the 1940s to modern definitions introduced by significant technologists. It categorizes APIs into public, private, and partner types, and discusses various API strategies such as REST and SOAP, along with their methodologies for data retrieval and manipulation. It emphasizes the evolution of APIs and their essential role in contemporary software development.
Application Programming Interface , a quick introduction
- 1. Application Programming Interface (API) An introduction Jahangir Shaik
- 2. 40s & 50s 60s & 70s 90s 2000 API: Application Programming Interface (API) is a type of software interface, by which, two or more computer programs or components communicate with each other In 1940, British computer scientists Maurice Wilkes & David Wheeler developed modular software library for EDSAC, an early computer system. These Library Subroutines were created on punch paper and organized in a filing cabinet. The cabinet also contained catalogue of notes that detailed on how to use subroutines. Such catalogue today, will be called as API First recorded instance of term "application program interface" showed up at AFIPS conference in 1968. However, the actual term API was introduced by C.J.Date in 1974 and became a part of the ANSI/SPARC framework for DB management systems Continuing the evolution, in 1990, the API was defined simply as set of services available to a programmer for performing certain tasks" by technologist Carl Malamud Our current API definition stems from Roy Fielding’s dissertation presented at UC Irvine in 2000 that described Representational State transfer (REST) and discussed the idea of “Network-based Application Programming Interface” Definition & History
- 3. Composite API Also known as Hybrid API; Combines multiple data and service APIs; Allow developers to access multiple endpoints simultaneously Public/External API These are meant for general users and anyone from public dev community; Have minimal restrictions; Also known as Open API Private/Internal API These are solely for consumption within the organization and is exposed only to internal systems; Meant for cross functional development activities Partner API These are dedicated for strategic business partners usage; Not available publicly and needs special entitlement for access API Strategies
- 4. REST API Representational State transfer; These are Web Services API; Crucial for modern day applications; Simpler than traditional SOAP; Most widely used SOAP API Simple Object Access protocol; is a type of Web API; However, comes with rigid standards and in some cases, is quite resource intensive RPC API Remote Procedure Call; Oldest and simplest; However, they are tightly coupled, therefore difficult to maintain and update gRPC API Its a RPC variation with advanced protocol (HTTP/2); Offers better performance, faster transmissions & efficient bandwidth usage; Supports multiple programming languages GraphQL API Not strictly an API; Offers powerful ways to interact with data; Flexible and intuitive syntax makes it easy to develop; Well suited for data intensive apps Asynchronous API Aka event driven API; Provides response from source only when information is new or changed; Good solution for always-on apps with heavy data usage API Protocols
- 5. API Methods GET Method This method is used to retrieve data from the server; Most commonly used POST Method This method is used to send or push data to the server; this is also most commonly used PUT Method This method is used to update specified source with new data by replacing the entire content PATCH Method Similar to PUT method; However instead of replacing, it only updates the contents DELETE Method This method is used to delete a specified resource and the content is removed entirely API Methods are types of requests that are sent to server; In general, there are 5 types of API methods. They are used to perform CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update and Delete)
- 6. Thank you !!! Happy Reading 😀