APIs are a core component in the modern เอพีไอ Stack. It allows developers to develop applications against data and services provided by a company’s API. These days, companies that have valuable data or services create an API to allow for 3rd parties to build on top of their API. APIs are great for creating more efficient workflows. They are instrumental, for example, when you are using content management systems like WordPress or Drupal. To speed the production of websites, APIs allow developers to work simultaneously on the same website.
What is an API?
An application programming interface (API) provides a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. APIs are used to customize and extend the functionality and features of applications. An application programming interface (API) เอพีไอ is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building software applications. APIs are used to customize and extend the functionality and features of applications.
Why does one need an API?
In the old days, the software would live in a single computer. One could write that software, and that software would live on one computer. The computer was the local computer, and the software was local software.
Things changed. Computers got connected, and software got distributed. Computers still are local, but the software isn’t. Now the software is spread over the network, and the computer is just another machine on the network. Now the software is outside the computer.
And that’s the interesting thing. Because it means that software is no longer local. Software is global. It’s out there. It can be on any machine, anywhere. It can be on their laptop, or it can be on a server in a data center, or it can be.
How does it work?
These routines and protocols are defined in programming languages like PHP, Java, Python, and C++. In PHP, for example, API routines are called “functions,” and the API เอพีไอ itself is called the “php_api.” A typical PHP application will have one or two functions that it uses to communicate with the database, one function that it uses to communicate with the user, and one function that it uses to communicate with itself.
A function is a piece of code. Usually, it takes one or more arguments and returns a value. In PHP, one can use any data type one wants as arguments and return values. For example, one can pass an integer, a string, an array, or even an object. When PHP runs a function, it calls that function in a “context,” which is a bit like a “stack” or a “queue.” The function calls a function in its context and so on until it gets to the end of the list, where it pops a function off the Stack and calls it.