APIs explained!

This article is intended to explain what Api means!
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So, What Is An API & What
Are They Good For?

API means Application Programming
Interface and they say that APIs are
the underlying aspect of Web 2.0. But
what does it really mean – what is an
api? Let’s try to demystify the term a
little.
The word to really pay attention to is
“Interface”. If you have any
experience at all with programming,
all kinds of abstractions and contracts
must be coming to your mind when
you hear the word “interface” but we
are more interested in the classical
meaning of the term.

An interface is a common boundary
between two separate systems. It is
the means or the medium via which
these two systems communicate.

Definition

An API is the interface implemented
by an application which allows other
applications to communicate with it.

Why Is It Needed?

In one word – communication . You
might ask why communication is so
important. Just imagine Notepad
couldn’t copy-paste to and from
Microsoft Word or Google Chrome.
Imagine having to type each and every
time although the text is already there
in some other application. This is only
one of the examples of communication
between applications and all this
communication is made possible via
APIs.

What Is It Really?

You cannot run an API like you would
run say a Notepad application. This is
because APIs are generally invisible
to the end users like you and me. APIs
are carefully thought out pieces of
code created by programmers for their
applications that allow other
applications to interact with their
application.
APIs are specially crafted to expose
only chosen functionality and/or data
while safeguarding other parts of the
application which provides the
interface. Creating an API is indeed
time well spent, because ultimately
the more applications that interact
with your application the more popular
it becomes.
An excellent example is Twitter . Most
people prefer their favorite Twitter
client instead of the web interface.
You can interact with Twitter whether
you are using a mobile phone, a smart
phone, an iPod or a computer. This
has been made possible by the
excellent Twitter API .

What Is It Good For?

As we have seen, APIs facilitate
communication allowing different
applications to communicate
effectively with each other. So these
are really well suited for extending a
platform and for mashups . We have
already seen Twitter as an example of
how APIs are useful in extending a
platform. When you combine data or
functionality from more than one
application to create another
application, you have essentially
created a mashup.
Such mashups are extremely popular
on the Internet these days. The
Internet thrives on communication so
it is an ideal place to take advantage
of APIs. It is a common practice to
expose part of your functionality or
data as an API to others on the Web.
They can then tap into what you offer,
combine it with what they (or someone
else) offers and then provide improved
and added functionality to their users.


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