What is an API? (Application Programming Interface)

Application Programming Interface

Have you ever wondered how computers, different software, and the websites you visit communicate with each other? Why websites need to be connected to each other; Suppose you want to book an airline ticket from a website, then you have to go to the website of that airline and book a ticket.

But many websites are connected to the websites of many more airlines and you can book all the airline tickets from one website. Again, those who shop online surely know that there are many websites where you can compare and check the product price of all e-commerce sites from one website, so how do these sites stay connected with more than one site at a time. To fully understand this you need to know about API!

What is API?

The full form of API is the Application Programming Interface. As a normal user, it is never possible to understand its function with its value, let's try to understand the whole thing easily.

API is basically a kind of tool that helps one software to connect with another different software and run on the same rule. Now suppose you are a 3D model and one of your neighbors is a civil engineer. Mr. Engineer would like you to design a 3D model for his next project.

But the problem is you speak Bengali and your neighbor engineer speaks Chinese, so how do you talk to each other? Of course, you will need a translator who knows both languages ​​and can explain each other to you. You can compare the API to the translator in this instance, a tool that understands different applications and connects them to one another.

The API can be attached to any program and it can be connected to a separate program. Suppose you write something in Notepad on your Windows computer and want to print it. Now if your Notepad program is connected to the printer's API, Notepad will be able to command and print directly to the printer. Suppose again that you have created a website from where you can see the results of any organization and any test.

However, you need to connect your site to all the result sites and their database through API. When a user searches your site for a result, the API will check the database of that result site and display the result from that database in front of it. Thus, API has many advantages, through which many applications or many websites are integrated to provide better and easier services.

Suppose you have a weather app that provides weather messages for your local location. But think about it, if this app can be connected to all the local apps across the country, you can get weather messages across the country from one app.

I hope you have no doubt about what API is and how it works, let's discuss its uses at different stages.

Business API

The number of online-based companies and companies providing services through websites is currently innumerable. Big companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter arrange for their services to be displayed on third party sites to keep them at bay.

If you have visited many websites, you must notice that the articles are on that site but there are direct Facebook comments added, that is, Facebook comments can be made on the articles of the website, and the comments are also published on Facebook. Again, you can see the latest posts on Twitter from the website, all of which are made possible by the API.

You will see in Korat that you can log in using Facebook or Google account, how does it work? Kora is directly connected to Facebook, Google's user database, when a user logs in through Facebook, Facebook provides Kora with the details of that user and logs in to Kora.

In this, all the work is done with one account. The main purpose of API is to improve the quality of service by bringing all websites and software together.

Browser API

The API is used not only for individual applications or websites but also for the Internet browser of your choice. Your Internet browser helps connect your computer or system to websites and various web applications. Suppose you want to use voice or video chat on Facebook or use the web version of Skype, in this case, these web applications need to access the mic, speaker, webcam, etc. from your system. And these accesses reach your internet browser through that API to that website.

Many websites want to know your location or see your system details, the browser helps them. Even with the help of APIs and browsers, a website can access or store any files on your computer without storing cookies.

API in Government

In addition to software or websites or browsers, the government itself uses APIs to control various services from one place. Databases of different forces of the country can be tied to the same source where all the information can be found by searching for information from one need to another. The CCTV cameras of all the cities are also connected together to control from one place.

The biggest advantage of API is that there is no need to re-program to add new features to any application. Rather the benefits can be added from one application to another. Suppose only text chat can be done in one application but it is possible to get all the features including voice chat, video chat by connecting it with the API of any other application. You can create your own Facebook app or Messenger using Facebook's API even if you want to.

Last word

So what we mean by API is basically a tool where one application can connect to another application through programming and command use and share their own features with each other. Computer software, applications, websites, web applications, servers, databases, etc. can be connected through APIA. This connection further enhances the service and helps to control everything and provide all the features from one place.

In a word, nothing is possible without API at the present time, every application or website or any place must have API support, surely it is not possible to develop anything from scratch!