APIs have become the center of software

development, connecting and transferring data to

millions of applications every day.

The guide covers simple explanations of all basic

concepts of APIs as well as the most common HTTP

status code and, more importantly, a list of popular

APIs that you can use to improve your applications.

What is API?

API stands for

Application Programming Interface.

It’s a connection between computers or

between computer programs. It is a type of

software interface, offering a service to other

pieces of software.

Basically, it enables apps to exchange data

and functionality easily and securely.

It let your product or service communicate

with other products or services without

having to know how they’re implemented.

A great example to
understand API

Imagine you’re sitting at a table in a

restaurant with a menu of choices to order

from. The kitchen is the part of the “system”

that will prepare your order.

What is missing is the critical link to

communicate your order to the kitchen and

deliver your food back to your table.

That’s where the waiter or API comes in. The

waiter is the messenger – or API – that takes

your request or order and tells the kitchen –

the system – what to do. Then the waiter

delivers the response back to you; in this

case, it is the food.

How an API works? 01

APIs sit between an application and the web

server, acting as an intermediary layer that

processes data transfer between systems.

01. A client application initiates an API call to

retrieve information also known as a request.

This request is processed from an app to the

web server via the API’s Uniform Resource

Identifier (URI) and includes a request verb,

headers, and sometimes, a request body.

02. After receiving a valid request, the API

makes a call to the external program or web

server.
How an API works? 02

03. The server sends a response to the API

with the requested information.

04. The API transfers the data to the initial

requesting application.

While the data transfer will differ depending

on the web service being used, this process

of requests and response all happens

through an API.

Whereas a user interface is designed for use

by humans, APIs are designed for use by a

computer or application.
REST API Architecture 01
REST stands for

REpresentational State Transfer.

The REST architecture is the most popular
approach to build APIs.

REST relies on a client and server approach

which separates front and back ends of the
API, & provides considerable flexibility in
development and implementation.

This means the implementation of the client

and the implementation of the server can be
done independently without each knowing
about the other.
REST API Architecture 02
APIs that adhere to REST principles are

called RESTful.

A Restful system consists of a

client who requests for the resource
server who has the resources

In the REST architecture, clients send

requests to retrieve or modify resources, and

servers send responses to those requests.

By using a REST interface, different clients hit

the same REST endpoints, perform the same
actions, and receive the same responses.
REST API Architecture 03
REST requires that a client make a request to
the server in order to retrieve or modify data
on the server.

A request generally consists of:

an HTTP verb, which defines what kind of

operation to perform

a header, which allows the client to pass

along information about the request
a path to a resource
an optional message body containing
data
CRUD 01

CRUD Stands for

Create Read Update Delete

In a REST environment, CRUD often

corresponds to the HTTP methods

GET, POST, PUT/PATCH, and DELETE.

Create POST

Read GET

Update PUT / PATCH

Delete DELETE
CRUD 02

In regards to its use in RESTful APIs, CRUD is

the standardized use of HTTP Action Verbs.

This means that if you want to create a new

record you should be using “POST”.

If you want to read a record, you should be

using “GET”. To update a record use “PUT” or

“PATCH”, And to delete a record, use “DELETE.”

Let’s learn about HTTP verbs, There are many

HTTP verbs we use in requests to interact with

resources in a REST system:

HTTP Verbs 01
HTTP defines a set of request methods to
indicate the desired action to be
performed for a given resource.

These request methods are referred to as

HTTP Verbs.

Below are the various types of HTTP Verbs

GET
The GET method is used to retrieve specific
resource. Requests using GET should only
retrieve data and should have no other

effect on the data.

HTTP Verbs 02

HEAD
Same as GET, but doesn’t have a message-
body in the response. The HEAD method is
useful in recovering meta-data that is
written according to the headers, without
transferring the entire content.

POST
A POST request is utilized to send data to a
server to create a resource, for example,
customer information, file upload, etc.
usually using HTML Forms.
HTTP Verbs 03

PUT
PUT is similar to POST as it is used to send
data to the server to create or update a
resource. The difference between it
replaces all current representations of the
target resource with the uploaded content.

DELETE
As it sounds, the DELETE request method is
used to delete resources indicated by a
specific URI. Making a DELETE request will
remove the targeted resource.
HTTP Verbs 04

CONNECT
CONNECT request establishes a tunnel to
the server identified by a specific URI. A
good example is SSL tunneling.

OPTIONS
The OPTIONS method requests permitted
communication options for a given URL or
server. A client can specify a URL with this
method, or an asterisk (*) to refer to the
entire server.
HTTP Verbs 05

TRACE
The TRACE method performs a message
loop-back test along the path to the target
resource, to provide a useful debugging
mechanism.

It allows clients to view whatever message

is being received at the other end of the
request chain so that they can use the info
for testing or diagnostic functions.
HTTP Verbs 06

PATCH
The PATCH method is used for making
partial changes to an existing resource.

The PATCH method provides an entity

containing a list of changes to be applied
to the resource requested using the URI.

PUT vs PATCH
PUT method uses the request URI to supply
a modified version of the requested
resource which replaces the original
version of the resource, whereas the PATCH
method supplies a set of instructions to
modify the resource.
HTTP Status Codes 01
Status codes are issued by a server in
response to a client’s request made to

the server.
The first digit of the status code specifies
one of five standard classes of responses.

Standard Classes
1xx Informational responses

2xx Successful responses

3xx Redirection responses

4xx Client error responses

5xx Server error responses

HTTP Status Codes 02

1xx - Informational responses

It indicates that the request was received
and understood by the server and its
continuing the process.

100 Continue

101 Switching Protocols

102 Processing

103 Early Hints

HTTP Status Codes 03

2xx - Successful responses

It indicates that the action requested by
the client was received, understood, and
accepted

200 OK

201 Created

202 Accepted

203 Non-Authoritative Information

204 No Content
HTTP Status Codes 04
3xx - Redirection responses
Many of these 3xx status codes are used in
URL redirection or it indicates the client
must take additional action to complete
the request.

301 Moved Permanently

302 Found

304 Not Modified

305 Use Proxy

307 Temporary Redirect

308 Permanent Redirect

HTTP Status Codes 05
4xx - Client error responses
This status code is intended for situations in
which the error seems to have been
caused by the client.

400 Bad Request

401 Unauthorized

403 Forbidden

404 Not Found

406 Not Acceptable

408 Request Timeout

HTTP Status Codes 06
5xx - Server error responses
It indicates that the server has
encountered a situation where it doesn’t
know how to handle a request.

500 Internal Server Error

501 Not Implemented

502 Bad Gateway

503 Service Unavailable

504 Gateway Timeout

505 HTTP Version Not Supported

HTTP Status Codes 07
These were not all the status codes that
exists, there are many more status codes
that indicates different things.

You can find and learn more about http

status codes on this website, with detailed
information about that stauts code.
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