Jar Jar Gone

An API allows two computer programs to communicate over the internet.

Fed up of copy and pasting between different systems? APIs can help.

Want to pull out the data from one website and do some cool stuff with it? APIs are great.

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An app that allows you to browse around the Internet using links.

Mozilla, Google, Microsoft and Apple make this software for free.

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If a URL is a postal address, the domain is the town. They split the internet up into general areas.

Usually a single web server handles a single domain.

Also known as host or domain name.

A URL for a feature that an API offers.

For example, here are the endpoints of the Spotify API:

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If a URL is a postal address, the path is the street and house number.

It's the specific area of the domain that we want to go to.

If a URL is a postal address, the query is you ringing on the doorbell and asking a question.

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They're packets of information flying around. You can imagine them as letters between friends.

Request - writing a letter to your pen pal.

Response - getting a reply back through your letterbox.

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A structured set of rules for how a web app or API works.

The rules are based around:

1. Resources - nouns - photos, friends, invoices.
2. Actions - verbs - create, list, show, update, delete.

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If a URL is a postal address, the scheme is your mode of transport.

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Like REST, it's a structured set of rules for how an API works.

It's pretty much dead nowadays - no-one except the criminally insane would choose this for a new API.

It's the text in the bar at the top of your browser.

Every web page, image or resource of any kind on the Internet has a URL.

It's like a postal address - it's the unique location of something on the Internet.

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A way of formatting data for use with APIs.

There are two common ways of doing this: JSON or XML.

George Clooney in JSON

{
  "name": "George Timothy Clooney",
  "birthday": "May 6, 1961",
  "age": 54,
  "birthPlace": "Lexington, Kentucky, U.S."
}

George Clooney in XML

<celebrity>
  <name>George Timothy Clooney</name>
  <birthday>May 6, 1961</birthday>
  <age>54</age>
  <birthPlace>Lexington, Kentucky, U.S.</birthPlace>
</celebrity>

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