Today hundreds of companies use REST APIs to create web services. It's the most logical, efficient and widespread standard. So in this article we will take a deep look into it.

Overview

API

It stands for Application Programming Interface, a software intermediary that allows two apps to talk to each other.

Types by use Cases

APIs

It can be classified according to the systems for which they are designed.

Here are they :

• Databases
• Operating Systems
• Remote
• Web

What is it then?

RESTful API

It is an architectural style and approach to communications often used in web service development.

Architectural Constraints

There are 6 architectural constraints that make any web service. The only optional constraint is the last one:

• Uniform Interface
• Stateless -Cacheable
• Client-Server
• Layered System
• Code on Demand (optional)

Why REST?

• Client and server are separated
• Visibility, readability and scalability
• Independent of platforms and languages

How it works?

RESTful API uses existing HTTP method, providing a meaning for the request you're making, to obtain resources from the server:

• GET - To retrieve a resource
• PUT - To update a resource
• POST - To create a new resource

Format

JSON - JavaScript Object Notation is a common format to send and request data through REST APIs. It's object looks like:

/* Each property and value must be wrapped with double quotation marks */
{
  "property1": "value1", 
  "property2": "value2", 
  "property3": "value3"
}

Thanks For Reading

Previously at -> Emma's Blog