What Is an API? A Simple Explanation

#webdev #api #frontend #beginners

What Is an API

API Stands For Application Programming Interface
In a Simple Words We Can Say That APIs are Tech Waiters. You Know What Does a Waiter Do Basically It Takes Your Order and Then Tells The Kitchen To Prepare and Then it Serves You .
So, Basically as Same API Works like If You are a Frontend Developer You Want Some Random Data For Your Project Do You Want Prepare A 50-100 Random Data For Yourself No.
So, There’s API Comes in you Just Have To Integrate in your Project and Boom There are 100s Of Data Which You Have’nt Write
Why Do We Need API
API Lets You Communicate With Other Softwares
It can Be any Softwares Like - Twilio Using Twilio You Integrate SMS Feature In your Project you Don’t Have to Write The Whole Program For The SMS Feature
Someone Have Alredy Done the HeavyLifting For you So you Don’t Have To
There is Authentication API Like - 0Auth
Types Of APIs
Rest APIs - Mostly and Widely Used
GraphQL APIs - It Is More flexible, You can ask for what you need
SOAP APis - Older, Used In Enterprises
How Does API Works
First You(Client) Sent The Request
Server (API Providers) It Process The Request

Then Response (Data) Comes Back in JSON or XML Format

{
  "city": "New York",
  "temperature": "25°C",
  "condition": "Sunny"
}

These Tools are used To Test The API By Sending And Recieving The Data For The Project

fetch("https://catfact.ninja/fact")
  .then(response => response.json())
  .then(data => console.log(data));

Like These You Sent The Request Through Code

And The Response Comes In JSON

{
  "fact": "Cats sleep for 70% of their lives.",
  "length": 35
}

🎉 Boom! You just used your first API.

You Can Use Them to Try Different Things

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