API

API is a initials that comes from the English language and refers to the expression Application Programming Interface (whose translation is Application Programming Interface). The concept refers to the processes, functions and methods provided by a certain programming library as an abstraction layer to be used by another computer program.

We can understand the API as a code which tells applications how they can maintain communication with each other. These rules allow the different programs to maintain interactions.

Another way to understand what an API is is by supplying functions that are in widespread use. In this way, a programmer can use the functionality of an API and thus avoid starting the programming task from scratch. Thanks to your flexibilityAPIs help to avoid a large volume of work that is usually common to many projects, offering instead a code that has been tested by millions of users and that, in many cases, continues to receive maintenance and updates to ensure its stability.

An API is used to establish a communication with a database, a operating system or a communications protocol, to name a few possibilities. Even the social media use different APIs: a tool to manage tweets, for example, can use an API to establish communication with the servers it uses Twitter.

One of the keys to the operation of APIs is the ease of integration. These tools have to be simple to integrate with another software so that communications can develop successfully. Likewise, your updates should not conflict to keep your performance at its best.

To avoid problems related to your updates, it is necessary that one of the following two points is met, or both: that the Format the data sent in response to the program in which it is integrated does not change; that the documentation very clearly explains how to adapt the program so that it can continue to use such data.

In addition to social networks, one of the platforms whose API is most used globally is PayPal. It is an ideal online payment system to simplify international transactions, both private and professional. When a developer wants to include a payment gateway from this company on his website, he must use the API distributed free of charge and follow the instructions to find the setting that best suits your needs.

In a few steps, it is possible to embed the PayPal form, simply taking advantage of the functions offered by its API, which are the result of hundreds of hours of work and has been tested by millions of people around the world. If we wanted to do this from scratch, regardless of the fact that in this particular case we could not directly access PayPal's servers, we would have to dedicate a lot of work time, to write and test each line of code, and that would unnecessarily delay the growth of our project.

The work of programmers is very particular in that it is characterized by constant learning, given the pace at which languages ​​and technologies in which they are used evolve. Among their daily activities is the consultation from the documentation of one or more APIs, to find the functions you need at each step.

It is important to remember that both the API and the idioms programming are "arbitrary" in that they could be made in infinite ways: a function called Upload Messages, for example, it might as well be called Get Feedback, Login or even Blue house; the names of the variables and functions are chosen by the developers, and that is why it is necessary to consult the API documentation to know them.