An Application Programming Interface (API) is a connection between computers or between computer programs. It is a type of software interface that provides a service for other software. A document or standard that describes how such a connection or interface can be established or used is called an API specification. A computer system that complies with this standard implements or provides an API. The term API can refer to either the specification or the implementation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In contrast to a user interface, which connects a computer to a person, an application programming interface (API) connects computers or pieces of software to each other. It is not intended to be used directly by a person (the end user), but only by a computer programmer who uses it in a software concept. An API often consists of different parts that are available to the programmer as tools or services. A program or programmer using one of these parts calls this part of the API (also called API calls). The calls that make up the API are also referred to as subroutines, methods, requests or endpoints. An API specification defines these calls, i.e. it explains how they are to be used or implemented. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One purpose of APIs is to hide the internal details of how a system works by exposing only the parts that are useful to the programmer, and to keep them consistent even if the internal details change later. An API can be customized for a specific pair of systems, or it can be a common standard that enables interoperability between many systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The term API is often used in connection with web APIs, which enable communication between computers that are connected to each other via the Internet. There are also APIs for programming languages, software libraries, computer operating systems and computer hardware.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"