Dictionar IT – API

Application program interface (API) is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other.

APIs are made up of:

1. a specification that describes how information is exchanged between programs, done in the form of a request for processing and a return of the necessary data.

2. a software interface written to that specification and published in some way for use.

The software that wants to access the features and capabilities of the API is said to "call it", and the software that creates the API is said to "publish it".

Why APIs are important for business

The web, software designed exchange information via the internet and cloud computing have all combined to increase the interest in APIs in general and services in particular.

Software that was once custom-developed for a specific purpose is now often written referencing APIs that provide broadly useful features, reducing development time and cost and mitigating the risk of errors.

APIs have steadily improved software quality and the growing number of web services exposed through APIs by cloud providers is also encouraging the creation of cloud-specific applications, internet of things (IoT) efforts and apps to support mobile devices and users.

Three basic types of APIs

APIs take three basic forms: local, web-like and program-like.

1. Local APIs are the original form, from which the name came. They offer OS or middleware services to application programs. Microsoft's .NET APIs, the TAPI (Telephony API) for voice applications, and database access APIs are examples of the local API form.

2. Web APIs are designed to represent widely used resources like HTML pages and are accessed using a simple HTTP protocol. Any web URL activates a web API. Web APIs are often called REST (representational state transfer) or RESTful because the publisher of REST interfaces doesn't save any data internally between requests. As such, requests from many users can be intermingled as they would be on the internet.

3. Program APIs are based on remote procedure call (RPC) technology that makes a remote program component appear to be local to the rest of the software. Service oriented architecture (SOA) APIs, such as Microsoft's WS-series of APIs, are program APIs.

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