Custom API Development Services
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In today’s technology world, we rely widely on communication in the web space, therefore, developing and expanding the communication framework is one of the main concerns of most us.
API is the most important part of communication across the technology and the internet. It is a type of programming instructions and standards that helps with accessing a web-based software application or service, which is sometimes called web API.
APIs not only help interacting between two applications or an application and a provider, but also are used as a software interface between users and developers, and in some cases between two to several developers.
Below illustration illustrates a good analogy between a restaurant operation and an API application:
Four Main Types of API
Developers can now use a variety of APIs to meet their specific needs. The four main types of API are:
- Open or Public API: The public API is open and can be used by external developers and businesses with minimal restrictions.
- Partner API: A partner API, is only available to specifically selected and authorized outside developers or API consumers. These are used to facilitate business-to-business activities
- Private or Internal API: Private APIs are provided to developers for internal staff to increase productivity as well as better communication of IT systems. They are used within companies to share resources.
- Composite API: As the name suggests, an aggregation API is a combination of two or more APIs to generate information specific to specific requests.
The Purpose of the API Protocol
The purpose of the API protocol is to standardize data exchange between web services. There are different types of API protocols, we review 3 main types of them, REST, SOAP, and RPC.
- REST (Representational State Transfer) is the most popular approach to build APIs. REST is a software architecture style with limitations to build applications that run on HTTP, most web services.
- RPC (Remote Procedure Call) protocol is a simple means to send multiple parameters and receive results.
- SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) SOAP is mostly used with enterprise web-based software to ensure high security of transmitted data.
Consideration Before Designing Custom API
- It has to be designed with the key needs of developers and businesses in mind, so it should be carefully discovered and tested right from the start. If the API does not meet the defined requirements, problems and costs will be created for the developer and the user. Usually after the initial design of the API, making changes and fixing basic bugs will be difficult and time consuming. In many cases, the API will need to be redesigned, and the new design will require additional manpower and financial costs. Moving existing users to the new API will also have its challenges and problems. Therefore, accuracy in the initial study of the application and detailed design is one of the main issues in API development.
- The API should be simple, easy to use and available so the developer can easily use and evaluate it.
- Differentiating between the new API and other APIs is another point in API design.