What is an API ? Introduction, Types, Architectures, Role and Future.

When we use applications like Ola, Uber or Zomato we see a map. In the case of Ola we can track the current location of our driver.But, does Ola have a satellite in space which tells the current location of the person in the map. The answer is a big NO!!! These applications are using the map services provided by the Google Maps Application. But, Ola can not directly access the data of google maps because of security reasons. That’s why Google has kept a security layer in between which is known as Google Maps API. So, to access google maps data and services Ola will access this API. On account of this, we can think of API as a messenger which delivers data from one place to another.

In this Blog, we will talk about API their types, architectures, roles and future.

What is an API?
API stands for Application Programming interface which is an intermediary software that allows two applications to share data and services. It’s a set of rules and definitions for creating and integrating software applications. Every time you use Instagram, Facebook, and Zomato you are using an API.

In other words, API gives us the answer of What and not How. To understand this statement let’s take a real life example. When we go to a restaurant we see a menu and order the food according to it and the waiter works as the API and goes to the kitchen counter and requests for the dish we ordered and if that dish is present it brings our order otherwise tells us that the dish can not be served. Likely, When an application will send a request to an API asking for some data, the API will then send this request to its server and then the server will either accept the request and send the required data to the API or will reject the request and will send the corresponding error. Consequently, the API that gets the data from the server will manipulate it in the required format and then will send the data to the application or will return the error which it received from the server.

When you browse web pages over the internet, the same type of request/response cycle works.You send a request using the browser the browser then requests the server for data and then sends the response it got from the server. The only major difference in case of web pages is the data returned is in HTML, CSS, or JavaScript format and in the case of an API it will be in raw format i.e JSON or XML.

Let’s see some examples where you can use an API

• An iPhone app which needs camera access to take photographs(Like Snapchat or Instagram): To provide the camera feature to your app you don’t have to write the code to integrate it. Rather, you can use the camera API provided by the iPhone operating system.This promotes the rapid development of your application and avoids doing everything from scratch.
• A website with a login feature: To provide the logic feature to your website to make your application secure and reliable instead of making it from scratch you can integrate APIs offered by Google and Facebook to provide features like Login with Google or Login with Facebook. This helps you with two things.Firstly you don’t have to write the login feature code from scratch and secondly it saves you from the tedious job of checking the authenticity of the user, as now it is Google and Facebook’s job.
• A website with a payment gateway: If you are making an eCommerce website and you want to have an option for online payment you can use the API offered by PayPal and give the option to Pay using PayPal to make online payments.

What are the types of APIs available?
On the basis of access and scope of use, APIs can be categorized in 4 types.

1. Open APIs

Open APIs are also known as External API or Public API and as the name suggests they are open to use means they are accessible by any developer to use and integrate in their application. Since they are open they provide less authentication and authorization measures.

2. Partner APIs

Partner APIs, as the name suggests are those APIs which are shared among business partners with mutual decision. Because they are available to only authorized clients they are safer as compared to Open APIs.

3. Internal APIs

Internal APIs are those APIs, which are unlike Open or External APIs not available to other users and can be used by 3rd parties. They are made to use in a company to streamline the process of sharing data among the employees of its company only.

4. Composite APIs

Composite APIs combine various APIs, allowing developers to combine calls or requests together and obtain a single unified response from multiple servers. A composite API is used when you need data from multiple apps or data sources.

What are the various kinds of API architectures that are currently in use?
The rules that govern what information an API can share with clients and how it communicates data constitute an API’s architecture. The most widely used API architectures nowadays are REST, SOAP, and RPC.

1.  REST

REST stands for representational state transfer and is a set of rules for making APIs that are scalable, lightweight, and simple to use. A REST API (or “RESTful” API) is a data transmission API that meets the REST standards and is used to send data from a server to a requesting client. Client-server isolation, a consistent interface, a stateless, layered system, and cacheability are all guidelines to follow.

2.  SOAP

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a network data transmission protocol that can be used to create APIs. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has standardized SOAP, which uses XML to encode data. SOAP specifies how messages should be sent and what information must be included. SOAP APIs are therefore more secure than REST APIs, despite the fact that the strict rules make them more code-heavy and difficult to implement in general.

3.  RPC

The RPC protocol (Remote Procedural Call) is the simplest of the three designs. RPC APIs, unlike REST and SOAP, which permit data transfer, invoke processes. To put it another way, they run scripts on a server. In its calls, RPC APIs can use either JSON (a JSON-RPC protocol) or XML (an XML-RPC protocol). Although XML is more secure and flexible than JSON, the two protocols are otherwise very comparable. The RPC protocol is a reasonably simple and easy technique to run code on remote networks, despite its strictness.

What role do APIs play in the growth of digital businesses?

APIs are the primary integration mechanism in the distributed cloud-native development environment, offering developers and the applications they produce a number of benefits, including:

• APIs simplify otherwise complex connections, allowing developers to adapt rapidly to changing requirements and shortening the development cycle.
• Because of their low cost and simplicity, APIs foster experimentation and innovation.
• APIs simplify communication between applications and services, eliminating the need for manual processes, phone calls, faxes, and time-consuming point-to-point connections.
• API designs can be reused as building pieces, increasing scalability and accelerating the development process.

Why does it appear like APIs are the way of the future?

Developers nowadays primarily use APIs to connect across services, create integrations, and send data to third-party customers. APIs will become increasingly crucial in the future.
It was good a few years ago if your application had a public API; now it is virtually a requirement, and in a few years, it will be required. APIs are a terrific way to transfer information between different programmes as they become increasingly integrated.
It doesn’t matter if the app you need data from is written in PHP, NodeJS, Go, or C#; as long as it has an API, getting the data you require is simple.

Conclusion
When we approach APIs not only from the perspective of software development but also from the perspective of business collaboration, they play a far larger role. These resource-exchange machine-readable interfaces are similar to delivery services that operate behind the scenes and provide the necessary technological connectivity.
In the current condition, digitally aware firms rely largely on private, public, or partner APIs to function. APIs produce 50 percent of income for Salesforce, 60 percent for eBay, and 90 percent for Expedia. As a result, infrastructure service providers must fully utilize the capabilities of an API-powered infrastructure platform to stay ahead of the market and competition.

Startxlabs, one of India’s top digital transformation service providers. Launched in 2014, Startxlabs aims in innovating a digital future by developing technology for the web and mobile platforms. From our beginning as a technology development company, we’ve tried to stay true to our core beliefs and to deliver exceptional services to our clients. Whether it’s people we work for or people who work for us, we value honesty, passion, and the desire to explore. We have expertise in website development, android app development, iOS app development, Flutter, React Native app development, UI/UX design, and marketing strategy. With the engagement of our highly technical team, we have delivered over 110+ projects providing a positive impact on the users.