• Home
  • Archive
  • Tools
  • Contact Us

The Customize Windows

Technology Journal

  • Cloud Computing
  • Computer
  • Digital Photography
  • Windows 7
  • Archive
  • Cloud Computing
  • Virtualization
  • Computer and Internet
  • Digital Photography
  • Android
  • Sysadmin
  • Electronics
  • Big Data
  • Virtualization
  • Downloads
  • Web Development
  • Apple
  • Android
Advertisement
You are here: Home » API Basics in Plain English

By Abhishek Ghosh June 5, 2013 1:12 pm Updated on June 5, 2013

API Basics in Plain English

Advertisement

API Basics explains what we do with this API and why and how really you can use your own API. It is really not that difficult than it sounds to be. We wrote about API or Application programming interface in details in an article, how to test your Cloud Based App RESTful API, you have heard of WordPress API, this API, that API; but basically you never understood what this API is. If your understanding with API is like this situation, this light article on API Basics will definitely help you. This article API Basics not only explains but provides easy examples to build something of your own.

 

API Basics

 

API is a specification for a particular application that returns a set of functions for a specific task to interact with a specific software component. Sounds difficult ? Look, API can be very simple or very very complex. An API call might require privileged access (that means you will need some key to read it) or can be generally, publicly accessible. Quickly read this relatively unrelated guide – Find Your Facebook Fan Page ID and Facebook Profile ID Easily. You have heard that Facebook has API. Now, you want to know the number of Likes this website’s Facebook page. Well, you can do it by directly going to the real webpage on Facebook via browser. But just to know the number, what is the need of loading a whole webpage ?

Facebook describes here how to use such way :

Advertisement

---

 

Vim
1
https://developers.facebook.com/docs/reference/api/selecting-results/

 

Practical example for the above situation to know our Facebook Page’s Fan number is to go to this URL :

 
API Basics in Plain English
 

http://graph.facebook.com/thecustomizewindows
 

Depending upon your Operating System, you will get it on browser result of array of data or you will prompted to save, save as text file. This is not meant to be directly read by you or me, it is intended for the programs which can easily get the data. If you are using OS X or Linux, you can open your Terminal App and also fetch the data in this way :

 

Vim
1
curl http://graph.facebook.com/thecustomizewindows

 

This returns this result :

 

So, without using browser we actually can know many data of our Facebook page. What is the use ? The use is for example to show it on Widgets or kind of such things. We need to use some programming language for that part. For example, Twitter follow button with follower number, the scripted thing will be :

 

  That will return this : Follow @AbhishekCTRL
These are kind of very simple examples. I have made that data-show-count=”false” to data-show-count=”true” ; that is why I am getting that number beside. The API call is within the Javascript in this case.

 

API Basics : Create a Simple Own API

 

This is a very basic example set :

 

 

This is intended for PHP, but can be modified and used in Ruby. In fact, the Syntax highlighting is with Ruby as there is no PHP opening tag. So, first you need to know some programming language, otherwise how you will write your own logics ? If you know the language, its simple like the above, you just need to keep it open, and provide a browser accessible output url. From $this -> $txt or from $that -> $json.

We should stop here in this guide because this is just the API Basics.

Abhishek-Ghosh Tagged With API Basics , basics of api , API description in plain english

This Article Has Been Shared 898 Times!

Facebook Twitter Pinterest
Abhishek Ghosh

About Abhishek Ghosh

Abhishek Ghosh is a Businessman, Orthopaedic Surgeon, Author and Blogger. You can keep touch with him on Twitter - @AbhishekCTRL.

Here’s what we’ve got for you which might like :

Articles Related to API Basics in Plain English

  • Installing TYPO3 on Rackspace Cloud Sites

    Installing TYPO3 on Rackspace Cloud Sites provides you a basic information on TYPO3 CMS and guide on how to install this CMS on Rackspace Cloud Sites easily.

  • Red Hat OpenShift PaaS : Smart Guide to Host Your App

    Red Hat OpenShift PaaS has pre-configured one click installers for Frameworks, one click installers for WordPress, Drupal. Free for 50k visitors per month.

  • Installing Apache2 With PHP5 and MySQL Easy Guide

    Installing Apache2 With PHP5 and MySQL on Rackspace Cloud Server with Ubuntu Linux is written in easy language and as step by step guide for the newbies.

  • Install Open Journal Systems on Rackspace Cloud Sites

    Install Open Journal Systems on Rackspace Cloud Sites just like any other PHP MySQL based application in easy to follow steps.

  • Eight Tips for Secure Cloud

    Eight Tips for Secure Cloud are for are using the extremely useful services whose security are still regarded as uncertain. What users can do in this situation?

Additionally, performing a search on this website can help you. Also, we have YouTube Videos.

Take The Conversation Further ...

We'd love to know your thoughts on this article.
Meet the Author over on Twitter to join the conversation right now!

If you want to Advertise on our Article or want a Sponsored Article, you are invited to Contact us.

Contact Us

Subscribe To Our Free Newsletter

You can subscribe to our Free Once a Day, Regular Newsletter by clicking the subscribe button below.

Click To Subscribe

Please Confirm the Subscription When Approval Email Will Arrive in Your Email Inbox as Second Step.

Search this website…

 

Popular Articles

Our Homepage is best place to find popular articles!

Here Are Some Good to Read Articles :

  • Cloud Computing Service Models
  • What is Cloud Computing?
  • Cloud Computing and Social Networks in Mobile Space
  • ARM Processor Architecture
  • What Camera Mode to Choose
  • Indispensable MySQL queries for custom fields in WordPress
  • Windows 7 Speech Recognition Scripting Related Tutorials

Social Networks

  • Pinterest (21K Followers)
  • Twitter (5.3k Followers)
  • Facebook (5.7k Followers)
  • LinkedIn (3.7k Followers)
  • YouTube (1.3k Followers)
  • GitHub (Repository)
  • GitHub (Gists)
Looking to publish sponsored article on our website?

Contact us

Recent Posts

  • 5 Sectors That Have Undergone Revamps in Digital Landscape February 24, 2021
  • What You Can Control with a Smartwatch and ESP32 February 23, 2021
  • What Does Data Cleansing Mean? February 21, 2021
  • How to Find the Right Software for Your Company February 20, 2021
  • What is Code Refactoring? February 19, 2021

 

About This Article

Cite this article as: Abhishek Ghosh, "API Basics in Plain English," in The Customize Windows, June 5, 2013, February 25, 2021, https://thecustomizewindows.com/2013/06/api-basics-in-plain-english/.

Source:The Customize Windows, JiMA.in

 

This website uses cookies. If you do not want to allow us to use cookies and/or non-personalized Ads, kindly clear browser cookies after closing this webpage.

Read Cookie Policy.

PC users can consult Corrine Chorney for Security.

Want to know more about us? Read Notability and Mentions & Our Setup.

Copyright © 2021 - The Customize Windows | dESIGNed by The Customize Windows

Copyright  · Privacy Policy  · Advertising Policy  · Terms of Service  · Refund Policy