APIs and REST APIs
Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog. Last week we talked about APIs in Activity 12 and I want to go more in depth about APIs and what a REST API is since I don't really know what they are. API stands for Application Programming Interface and it is a set of definitions that allows two applications to talk to each other. Almost every application uses an API to communicate data from your device to a server. The server has its own APIs to receive that data and interpret it, and then send it back to your device. Then the application translates that data into a readable format for you. You do not have to know how they are implemented into your application, which can simplify the application development and save a lot of time. APIs can also give security by only allowing certain data through and not all the data. For example, when you buy an item on an online store, you tell the store what items you want to buy and the store tells you what you need to pay. No other information fro...