In all forms of computer programming, there are a series of predetermined tools, terminologies and processes; these necessary components form a set that is referred to as the application programming interface (API). An API is capable of functioning as an operating system, web-based system, and many other specialized system variations.
Streamlined Programming
Components of graphical user interfaces (GUIs) oftentimes require an API in order to be programmed. In all of the roles that the API serves, its service ultimately amounts to providing a less exhaustive framework for all of the different executions involved in any programming project. After the API has established an orderly and easily-interpreted framework, the programmer can essentially put together what the API has laid out without needing to micromanage as many pieces of the puzzle.
Cross-Program Communication
APIs not only provide a building framework for programmers, but also facilitate the process of cross-program communication. When any text is cut and paste from one application and transferred into a separate application, it is the functioning of the API that made the conversion possible.
Intellectual Property Controversy
Many have debated over the appropriate status to assign to API under the terms of intellectual property (IP) rights. Essentially, the uncertainty of API’s status in terms of IP rights stems from the ambiguity of determining ownership of the raw data. In many cases, those who may claim that the API is their intellectual property may have truly only used raw data that had been extracted from elsewhere. The waters are muddied even more when when weighing the worth of whatever insights were added to the raw data post-extraction.
Beyond insights added to the extracted raw data, there may also need to be consideration for the owners of applications that adopted the API in order to function. Because of the many layers and nuances in the chain of creation and extraction, API ownership cases tend to be some of the more challenging cases to address.
Different API Forms
Different kinds of websites and applications will oftentimes require differently specialized forms of API in order to be built. In the case of certain operating systems, there may be multiple API forms involved in order for the entire system and its processes to function.
Web APIs are uniquely assigned to different brand websites such as Ebay and Amazon. With Web APIs, developers can use the existing data set from the main store for the creation of slightly varied subsets in smaller stores.
The Google Maps API is what makes it possible to have the Google Maps display embedded on unrelated webpages. The same embedding process facilitated by the Google Maps API is used by the YouTube API, in which the media platform’s player can emerge and be used to view videos on different hosting websites.
Related Resource: Cloud Based Development
Conclusion
APIs serve as vital tools for programming efficiency and cross-program communication. Both developers and end users benefit for the ease of data transference made possible by the application programming interface.
