In this post we will talk more about what is API and how it works?
What is API ?
API stands for Application Programming Interface. API is defined as a code that helps two different software’s to communicate and exchange data with each other.
Here are some benefits of using API -
Ease of integration
Improved services
Simple, flexible and quick adoption
Faster and easier data exchange
How API works?
Client makes a Request to Server and Server responds back with the data requested in the request.
Types of API
There are four main types of APIs:
Lets talk about each one in detail -
1. Open API -
Open APIs, also known as external or public APIs, which are available to developers and other users with minimal restrictions.
They may require registration, and use of an API key, or may be completely open. They are intended for external users to access data or services.
Public data available through Open APIs. For example, the Indian government offers API "Arogya APISetu"for Transparency or for providing detailed status around the statistics of Corona patients.
Data-centric, non-profit organizations make the data available and meaningful for citizen's usage by using open APIs.
2. Internal API -
Also known as Private APIs, they are types of APIs that are used only within a single Organization.
These are often used to integrate different services and streamline workflows in the Organization.
As private APIs aren’t publicly released, they typically aren’t documented in any way that’s available to the general public.
Degree of restriction is High.
APIs for Accountants’ payroll and HR systems are some of the examples for such APIs.
3. Partner API -
These types of API are not open to the public, and access is restricted through the use of specific licenses.
The purpose of these APIs is to facilitate B2B activities.
Example of a partner API is a recurring subscription service (like Netfilx).
Organization can share customer data with an alliance company without jeopardizing the safety of other data components.
4. Composite API -
It is combination of two or more APIs to craft a sequence of related operations.
Composite APIs are a combination of data and service APIs, that are used to speed up the execution of certain tasks and improve performance. It reduces the overall number of API calls a server has to make thus reducing workload and improving performance.
Addressing complex API behaviors becomes easy by using the composite category.
An example of this could be a shopping cart for an Ecommerce web application (like Amazon).
In the microservice-based architecture, composite APIs are more commonly used because of their ability to make calls to several private APIs at once.
API Stucture
API consist of Request and Response.
Request - it consist of URL, Http methods, Headers and Body.
Response - it consists of Https Response Status Codes, Headers and Body.
In next blog we will discuss more about Http Methods and Http Response Status Code.
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