I understand what an API is in principle, although I may understand it incorrectly. Suppose there is some twitter channel and I insert tweets from it into my application. Will it be using the API? If I'm not wrong, give a more successful example.

My knowledge is not enough to correctly and correctly ask a question, I ask how I can. If you understand the essence, please help me with explanations on this matter.

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    Possible duplicate question: Books and educational resources on Android - 0xdb
  • @ 0xdb I think not, since the question in the field is specific .. And so, if there are books with all the theory and off docks, why stackoverflow? - Timur Mukhortov
  • @TimurMukhortov "I think not, because the question in the field is specific" - if you think so, then answer the question of the vehicle. - 0xdb
  • @KeyJibo what do you mean by API? - Timur Mukhortov
  • Almost all popular services have an API. You can learn about them from the official resources of these services. Each service has its own API and one universal at all does not exist. For example vkontakte api - pavlofff

1 answer 1

Definition (from wikipedia [link to source.] ):

API (application programming interface, application programming interface) (eng. Application programming interface, API [hey-pi-ai]) is a set of ready-made classes, procedures, functions, structures and constants provided by the application (library, service) or operating system for use in external software products. Used by programmers when writing all sorts of applications.

Explanation:

Imagine that you have an isolated module in a program that does something, for example, it processes some kind of data.

As a developer of this module, I want you to be able to send data for this module and receive. Then I make an interlayer ( API ) that will give you this opportunity.

All you have to do is to access this layer and pull the method you need to read / write data with the necessary parameters.

It will also occur with the Twitter, VK, etc. service. These services have API documentation on how to work with this layer, for example:

  • what parameters need to send
  • what type
  • what will be returned to you

True, you first need to serialize the object when sending it and deserialize it when receiving.

List of popular APIs :

Appeal to the moderator and the community: I do not know whether you can specify links to the API, please, if not, delete. If possible, add your own.

  • Thanks, are there any popular api that many people use? - KeyJibo
  • For example from Github developer.github.com/v3 - Timur Mukhortov