Tamil What is an API ? | APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE | InterviewDOT

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The textbook definition goes something like this:
“An application programming interface (API) is a set of routines, protocols, and tools for building software applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types. An API defines functionalities that are independent of their respective implementations, which allows definitions and implementations to vary without compromising each other. A good API makes it easier to develop a program by providing all the building blocks.

APIs often come in the form of a library that includes specifications for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables. In other cases, notably SOAP and REST services, an API is simply a specification of remote calls exposed to the API consumers.

An API specification can take many forms, including an International Standard, such as POSIX, vendor documentation, such as the Microsoft Windows API, or the libraries of a programming language, e.g., the Standard Template Library in C++ or the Java APIs.

An API differs from an application binary interface (ABI) in that an API is source code-based while an ABI is a binary interface. For instance POSIX is an API, while the Linux Standard Base provides an ABI”.

To speak plainly, an API is the messenger that runs and delivers your request to the provider you’re requesting it from, and then delivers the response back to you.

To give you a familiar example, think of an API as a waiter in a restaurant.

Imagine you’re sitting at the table with a menu of choices to order from, and the kitchen is the provider who will fulfill your order.

What’s 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. ”AHEM”

The waiter takes your order, delivers it to the kitchen, and then delivers the food (or response) back to you. (Hopefully without letting your order crash if designed correctly), we could relate with API.

Benefits of API :
1. Eliminate Barriers
If you're already engaging your clients or partners through portals or mobile applications, that’s a great first step. But, you may be inadvertently creating barriers for those folks in the form of logins and lack of flexibility. If you create an open API that your external end user can integrate into their application and customize to their needs, you're removing any barriers from them using your services or goods. The ability to integrate directly into your system will give them far more freedom and ability to help themselves. This creates long-term buy-in from the customer.

No application is built perfectly to suit everyone’s unique needs. Giving customers easy access to your interface allows them to use your product in a way that best suits their needs and makes them far less likely to move away to a less flexible model. Every request to the system creates the opportunity for deeper insights and a “stickier”, long-term relationship between the two of you.

Promote Innovation
Web portals and mobile applications assume a certain level of usage requirements. Focusing on UX enables you to design an application to provide the maximum value to your end use. But at the same time, you're pre-determining how your service is being used. If you strip it back and open API for customers, partners, and vendors, they may use it in ways you never considered. You may realize that there are whole new industries and verticals you can service. If your customers can use the interface the way they want to use it, they may create new products or open source and share with other people. In some cases, API providers have even incorporated some of the functionality that their end-users have extended.

What happens if there are no APIs ?
Functionality sharing wont happen , every one has to implement the same code , SAAS might become challenge.