The world of web development has been evolving at an exponential rate for the last two decades. New terms and acronyms are being introduced daily. By providing a glossary, we hope to make learning web development easier.
Examples are presented in JavaScript (ES2015). Why JavaScript?
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API (Application Programming Interface) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. In the context of web app development, API often refers to the communication protocol between a client (front-end) and a server (back-end). Examples of such protocols are REST or GraphQL.
Another common usage is when referring to consuming a third-party service from your web page, e.g., invoking a GitHub API to fetch all repositories of a specific user:
const url = 'https://api.github.com/users/{username}/repos';
fetch(url)
.then(response => response.json())
.then(data => console.log(data))
.catch(error => console.error(error));Using it in a sentence
- Hey, I just added a new route for billing to our back-end API! Just Make sure the client is authenticated when performing a request.
- Have you already tried out the new GPT-4 API? Can't wait to build an app that will use it to generate a cover letter from your CV.
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