You might have heard the word ‘API development’ over a hundred times while communicating with mobile app developers. In this article, we’ll cover everything you should know about this technological buzzword
What is an API?
API stands for “Application Programming Interface.” It is a set of standards,
instructions, and requirements that enables a computer program to import or access data, features, and services of another program. In layman terms, APIs are a gateway for apps or software applications that allow them to communicate with each other.
The most famous and common API used by mobile developers is Facebook’s API. It is primarily used at the time of user registration. Facebook’s API gives mobile developers limited access to the profile of Facebook members. This helps mobile developers to simplify the user registration process.
Another example is the Google Maps API. It is very popular for the apps that require mapping and location services. Unlike Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn’s social APIs, Google charges for its map API if the requesting application is paid, or exceeds 100k API queries within a 24 hours period.
Integration of APIs is crucial for the mobile app development process, as it abolishes the need for creating every app program from scratch. Instead of reinventing the wheel, the development teams can utilise existing apps or platforms that allow API integration. It boosts their mobile app’s time to market and reduce the cost of development.
Terminology Used FrequentlyAPI Key: The API key is an authentic code passed by the mobile app owner to the API requester. It is to recognize the receiver of the API.
Endpoint: The API communication happens between two software systems. One end of the channel is coined as Endpoint.
POST: It is an HTTP method to build resources using the REST ful API.
JSON: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a data format used for request parameters and response body.
GET: GET is the HTTP method of obtaining resources from RESTful API.
OAuth: It is an open standard authorisation framework to access from the user’s side without sharing the credentials.
Latency: Latency is the time taken by an API from request to response.
Rate-limiting: It is the process of limiting the number of requests a user can make on the API.
API Throttling: The process of regulating API usages by the users is termed API throttling. So, when the user crosses its daily or weekly API request limit, the server alerts the user.
REST: Representational State Transfer or REST is a type of programming architectural implementation that enhances the communication efficiency between both the endpoints. As the name itself elaborates, the REST programming shares only references of the data instead of sharing the data itself. Systems built on this architecture are denoted with ‘RESTful’ systems. The most successful example of a RESTful system is the World Wide Web.
SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol or SOAP is a protocol to share structured information on computer networks SOAP is a messaging protocol and works and XML information set for message format and application layer protocols for message negotiation and transmission.
How API Development Works?Suppose that you are on a website to book a flight. The site asks you to fill up a form with details such as departure date, preferred time, domestic or international flight preferences etc. Right after you fill-up the form, you get the list of several flight options with details like pricing, seat availability, timings etc.. Ever wondered how it happens?
To provide users with such precise information, the web platform sends an API request to the airline’s website. The airline’s website responds with the required data and then the platform displays it on the user’s screen.
In this scenario, the airline’s website and flight booking app/platform are the endpoints and the communication between them happens through REST and SOAP. However, most of the mobile app development companies prefer using REST over SOAP as the SOAP APIs are very heavy to the platforms.
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