Fundamentals of APIs

Think about your experiences using ride–sharing mobile apps, like Uber. You re able to request a car to your exact geographic coordinates, right down to the street corner. This functionality is possible thanks to application programming interfaces, or APIs.

An API is a platform that allows different pieces of software, or applications, to communicate with one another. The term is used broadly in the context of programming languages, the web, operating systems, etc. For example, Apple publicly shares a number of APIs powered by iOS its operating system for iPhones and iPads for app developers to use. These APIs allow applications like Instagram and Snapchat to use a device s camera, microphone, and much more.

This course covers the essentials of APIs of modern web development, explaining what APIs are and how to use them to quickly incorporate data into your websites.

We’ll get into consuming and getting data from APIs. We’ll also go over the basics of associated technologies and skills, such as JSON and object–oriented programming, and learn how to handle errors you might encounter when trying to get data from an API.