2. dict
3. tuple
4. setFOUNDATION TOPICS
RESTFUL API FUNDAMENTALS
An application programming interface (API) is a
set of functions and procedures intended to be used as an
interface for software components to communicate with
each other. An API may be for a web app, an operating
system, a database system, computer hardware, or any
software library. A common example of an API is the
Google Maps API, which lets you interface with Google
Maps so that you can display maps in your application,
query locations, and so on. Figure 7-1 shows a simple
way to visualize an API.
Figure 7-1 APIs are a contract between two
communicating applications
The following sections look at the different API types.
API Types
APIs can be broadly classified into three categories,
based on the type of work that each one provides:
Service API: In a service API, an application can call on another
application to solve a particular problem (see Figure 7-2). Usually these
systems can exist independently. For example, in a payment system, an
application can call the API to accept payments via credit cards. As