It’s not difficult to comprehend the importance of APIs and how they have become part and parcel of modern-day websites and web applications. The use of application programming interfaces (APIs) has become increasingly common in web application development projects. A large number of companies use custom APIs to adequately interconnect several different web components and services. One of the main reasons for using web APIs is that it significantly reduces development time and effort. Besides, API development and implementation aids in delivering consistent user experiences by providing easy access to different app components.
At Oodles ERP, we provide 360-degree API development solutions that are laser-focused on solving complex business problems. Our custom web API development services enable organizations to save their time and costs while delivering improved user experiences across devices. In this post, we outline the basic concept of API while describing different types of APIs in web application development.
Also, Read Benefits of API-centric Web Application Development
What Is an API?
An application programming interface (API) is a software intermediary that enables two or more applications to communicate through a set of routines or protocols. For several years, APIs remained the building blocks for desktop-based software applications and computer operating systems. However, with the advent of web APIs, they have now become more popular in websites and web applications.
Web APIs play a critical role in web application development, enabling developers to introduce complex features with minimal coding efforts. Besides, integrating third-party APIs is an effective way to provide additional features without having to develop custom functionalities from scratch. Let’s move ahead and discuss different types of APIs in web application development as well as their relevance for different web projects.
You may also be interested in reading The Need For REST API Development
Types of APIs In Web Application Development
Given below are the four main types of APIs in web application development services. These APIs are extensively used in web projects to enhance the features and functionalities of a website or web application.
Open/Public APIs
As the name suggests, these are publicly available to developers for general-purpose use cases with minimal platform-specific constraints. Public APIs might be completely open to use or may require user registration or sometimes a public key.
Partner APIs
Partner APIs are similar to public APIs. However, the publisher usually imposes several terms and conditions to use these APIs. The main focus of partner APIs is enabling publishers to monetize their content. Unlike public APIs that are completely open, partner APIs require a subscription from developers and business users. The subscription might be paid or free depending on the publishers’ needs.
Internal/Private APIs
Now that you are familiar with the basic concepts of API, it should not be difficult to comprehend the significance of internal/private APIs. In web application development, these APIs enable organizations to adequately connect their in-house software modules and enterprise applications. Here, the main objective is to facilitate seamless communication between different software components in order to achieve business goals. For instance, developers can create and implement private APIs for in-house components like HRM, CRM, and accounting modules. In doing so, they provide business users with easy access to manage their diverse operations using a common software interface.
Composite APIs
Composite APIs sequentially batch or combine multiple data or service requests into a single API call. As a result, these APIs enable developers and business users to access multiple endpoints in a single call. To create composite APIs, developers require dedicated software tools with API orchestration capabilities. For this reason, this type of APIs is particularly useful for microservice-based software architecture.
Types of API Protocols In Web Development
An API protocol is a technical specification that standardizes data exchange between different software components and web services. There are three main types of API protocols in web development i.e REST, SOAP, and RPC.
REST APIs
The term REST stands for ‘representational state transfer.’ It is a computing protocol that uses HTTP standards to facilitate seamless communication between different web services. The use of REST APIs enables developers to reuse different software components without impacting the overall web development process.
To learn more about REST APIs, please refer to our previous blog post:
‘REST API Development: Things You Need To Know.’
SOAP APIs
Service object access protocol (SOAP) is a standard communication protocol that facilitates communication between web services through appropriate request and response messages. SOAP APIs support XML format and are designed to create, maintain, recover, and update various accounts, passwords, and custom objects. The SOAP architecture is increasingly popular in web development and is effective for building payment gateways and messaging services.
Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) APIs
The RPC architecture represents the simplest form of APIs and is slightly less popular these days in modern-day web applications. As the name suggests, these APIs facilitate interaction between client and server-based applications using remote procedure calls. In simple terms, these APIs are subroutines wherein the server provides appropriate responses to a client based on the requests that are generated.
At Oodles ERP, we provide custom API development and implementation services to address your diverse business needs and software requirements. We have experienced developers who specialize in developing and implementing both REST and SOAP APIs for varied business needs. Our 360-degree API development solutions solve complex business problems by adequately interconnecting different software components regardless of their heterogeneity. To know more about our custom API development services, write to us at [email protected].
