Where to get started with the API

Question

I have never worked with an API before (and I have very little programming experience outside of HTML and CSS) and I am struggling to find any clear tutorials or explanations.

Do all APIs work the same? Can you use any programming language or just a specific language or is it API dependent? Is there a general way to work with some of the main APIs? Do you know any really basic API guides or do you really need to be sure about specific coding languages ​​before you start this way?

There is no specific API that I “need” to work, but I would be interested in playing with services such as Twitter, Flickr, Google Maps, Facebook, Last.fm, etc., if available.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

Luke

Answer 1

API is an application programming interface. This is a really generic term for many different things. I assume that you mean "web APIs" which are usually RESTful or SOAP. The type of API that is used is really different from one service to another. Some have several ways to work with the API, for example, Amazon has REST and SOAP based services.

The best way to get started if you are doing it from the client side is to really start learning Javascript and then learning JQuery. Then from there, select the service you want to program. You can learn a lot of Javascript by encoding the Google Maps API. This is probably the best place to start, as it is a pretty neat system, not too complicated, requires a good level of Javascript knowledge (which you can learn along the way).

Answer 2

I would advise you to learn a programming language before you get too involved in the API. Once you understand how this works, the APIs will make a lot more sense.

Answer 3

Woah I heard this before. You do not want to rush to learn the API, you first need to get acquainted with a small programming language. When you have some programming skills, the secret of the API will be revealed. Maybe look at Ruby or Python as I saw how many people started using them.

http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide

Oh, and if you have a Mac or Linux machine, it’s best if you already installed Python!

Answer 4

The API is not so complicated. The word takes on mystical proportions.

Let’s take a look at a specific API. For example, Twitter. Google Twitter API First result: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/

You can find some implementations of the Twitter API in Python: http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Libraries#Python

Get Python. Get the implementation of the API. Start hacking.

Answer 5

In his excellent book “Practical API Design: Confession of the Java Framework Architect”, Yaroslav Tulach makes a convincing argument that the API system really consists of all things (function signatures, open objects, configuration file formats, etc.) that You must know to use a piece of software.

There are no universal standards for developing your APIs for your specific questions; styles and practices vary widely between programming languages, language communities, organizations, etc.

To get started, find a library in your favorite language and find code samples that show how to use all your features. Then try playing with these patterns to change their behavior.