What is an API? Reading Assignment

Blockchain Business Course
#564

  1. What is an API?
    An API (application programming interface) is a set of specifications which defines interactions between multiple software components.

  2. In the article the author compares Java API to Twitter API. What is the main difference between these two APIs?
    Twitter API is a web-based JSON API which allows developers to interacts between applications and Twitter databases. It’s more specific to Twitter. Java API is more generic. It can be a “regular” programme or a web app. It makes use of lists or libraries to specify what it can do.

  3. The section in the article about abstraction is important, try to understand it and write down an abstraction from your daily life.
    Pay fees online via Paypal, especially with “Pay with Paypal” button. It sends the order details, then triggers the authentication and if user authenticated, confirm the details and amount.

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#565
  1. API (Application Programming Interface) refers to how multiple applications can interact with and obtain data from one another
  2. The JAVA API is a library of software components available to anyone who has installed the JAVA DEVELOPMENT KIT, the TWITTER API is a web-based JSON API which has to be accessed over Internet requesting the services to the twitter host (server).
  3. I use the pen to write, but I really have no idea about how the ink manages to reach the nib and how it comes from the nib of the pen to the paper. What happens inside the pen is something I have no idea about and it is an abstraction, all I know is that I can use it to write.
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#566
  1. API is application programming interface is a program that interacts/communicates with separate softwares
  2. The java API is a kit that is in a development kit and the Twitter API is a web based
  3. An abstraction in my daily life is cooking. I don’t make the pasta sauce from scratch I buy the sauce and same with the pasta then cook the two saving lot of time and effort in making sauce and pasta from scratch.
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#567

API stands for Application Programming interface. and the basic concept is that it provides a way for two or more different applications to interact with each other on a programmatic level. While this concept is a bit complex to comprehend, it can be broken down a bit easier as thinking of a defined set of possible interactions with a software component. let’s think of it as a set of rules for how one can interact with or extract information from a network or programmatic system you don’t control. By defining these rules and allowing the interaction (often a retrieval of information), the API user doesn’t need to know the specifics of the program being queried, how it works or is organized. The API is a gateway.
Different APIs have different functions for different use cases. For example, the Twitter API allows a user outside the network to search, organize, quantify, and retrieve data around tweets, hashtags, geographic location etc, while the Java API is actually a library of preconfigured code (software) that allows java developers to build functionality easily and quickly, like legos to increase productivity and minimize bugs and defects in the code.
APIs in general exist to create simple to use and understand abstractions from very complex systems. Another difficult concept to fully understand, it is most easily defined as a way to simplify a process or action. A great example provided is that one doesnt need to know all of the complicated things that happen within a car to get it to operate. Pushing the gas pedal or brake results in a specific outcome, and we don’t need to understand the inner workings of the combustion engine or the hydraulic system in order to make it work.
As an enthusiast of crypto and an investor, i don’t really need to understand what goes on behind the scenes when I push the buy or sell button through my trading platform. Similarly, when it comes time to calculate net profit or loss at the end of a tax period, i don’t have to manually go into the history on the platform and create a manual entry for each trade with its result. i can simply use or create a piece of software that interacts with the software of the platform to generate and calculate the results.

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#568
  1. An API is a way to programmatically interact with a separate software component or resource.
  2. The Java api is a general library of functions which can call a variety of other programs and functions for progrtams running the java JDK. The twitter api, allows any client specifically to post tweets or interact with any web-based JSON application.
    3.Using Skip the Dishes (Canada) is a typical example of everyday abstraction. I can order and receive a meal without being involved in the complicated interactions behind the scenes.
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#569

1) What is an API?

       I think the API (application programming interface) is the commands to join the breaks and accelerator with the combustion engine.(making the example of the reading.

It’s the what and the how coming together, making the root, and the cup, makes the tree.:deciduous_tree:

2) In the article the author compares Java API to Twitter API. What is the main difference between these two APIs?

         I think the difference between each-other is that one it’s a library of components to know the what and the how of a list and the other it’s kind of a browser because it uses HTTP but they return into a JSON instead of the result of what you written.

3) The section in the article about abstraction is important, try to understand it and write down an abstraction from your daily life.

At 6:40 am rings the alarm, every day, even if I wake up at this time or don’t, then my light turns on and I start my day.

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#570
  1. A specification of possible interactions with a software component.
  2. Twitter API is web based and can be accessed by sending an HTTP request. Java API is a library of software components available to users who have installed the Java Development Kit.
  3. I didn’t get that section
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#571

API (Application Programming Interface) Reading

  1. An AP is software intermediary allowing multiple application to interact and obtain data from each other ( communication between frontend and backend).

  2. The main difference between java API and Twitter API is that Java API has a list of all classes that are part of the java development kit. It defines what you can do with the list and specifies how to perform actions on the list while Twitter API is web based and specific to Twitter components. it tells you what you can do with a tweet eg. search tweet, create tweet, favourite tweet andalso how to perform those actions ie. hashtags to look for, geolocation languages etc. It let you read and write Twitter data…

  3. Abstraction from your daily life:

  • Monthly shopping - automatic phone call to Sainsbury as a reminder for my monthly shopping to be delivered.
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#572

3) The section in the article about abstraction is important, try to understand it and write down an abstraction from your daily life.

Just write an example of something in your daily life that could be processed has a API. (you can read a lot of examples here in this topic to get a better idea) :nerd_face:

If you have any more questions, please let us know so we can help you! :slight_smile:

Carlos Z.

#573
  1. Application programming interface
  2. Java comes in the box as part of the Java API and the Twitter API is web-based
  3. Using the remote control to control the TV
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#574

  1. An API (Application Programming Interface) is an intermediary software program which allows two different protocols to programmatically communicate. An example would be between frontend and backend applications.

  2. Java API is accessed via the JavaScript Development Toolkit (no internet required) giving us a simplified means of coding common tasks. Twitter API is web-based and is used to define the possibilities for user interaction ie. like/retweet.

  3. Using my gas fireplace. I have a remote control that expedites cutting down a tree, bucking it up, splitting, stacking, drying… Kindling, newspaper, lighter, heat flu in chimney, etc…

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#575

1) What is an API?
Application Programming Interfaces, a ‘middleman’ between frontend and backend
2) In the article the author compares Java API to Twitter API. What is the main difference between these two APIs?
Twitter API is web based while Java API is included in the Java Development Kit
3) The section in the article about abstraction is important, try to understand it and write down an abstraction from your daily life.
I am a waitress in a restaurant (API). Customers interact with me, ordering a burger. I’ll send the order to the kitchen who makes it and then I would pick it up and serve to the customer. The customer has no idea about how the burger was made,how is the kitchen staff or the stock. Me as an API is a middleman between the customer and the kitchen.

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#576

Indeed, but more likely to be a common language than a middleman. :nerd_face:

Carlos Z

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#577

1.) What is an API?
API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

2.) In the article the author compares Java API to Twitter API. What is the main difference between these two APIs?
The Java API is a library of software components available “out of the box” to anyone who has installed the Java Development Kit while the Twitter API is a web-based JSON API that allows developers to programmatically interact with Twitter data. As the Twitter API is a web-based API it must be accessed by making requests over the Internet to services that Twitter hosts.

3.) The section in the article about abstraction is important, try to understand it and write down an abstraction from your daily life.
Getting everyday the same Cappuccino with the same taste and the same volume of milk by pushing a button would be great. (I prefer an espresso machine instead of an automatically Coffee machine)

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#578

1 a piece of software that interacts with two other software components to make it usable
2 The java api is part of a toolbox that a developer can use to make selections based on features of a list. It makes selections in a javascript written code. Twitter api interact with twitter data through a server and sends information back to the twitter app wich can parse the information.
3 In my profession there are a lot of smal skills to fix problems with glasses. Every small detail can be done in an efficient way but you have to know for example the sequence of actions or the way the action is performed. So you can do it in 2 different ways with the same outcome but one is time consuming and the other is efficient and fast. When you know how to do it efficient and fast you can use this new method every time.

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#579
  1. API or application programming interface: an interface to show you the ‘what’ and the ‘how to do the what’ of an underlying more complex functionality.
  2. Main difference is that Twitter API is web-based, it needs the internet to tell you what you can do with Twitter and how you can do it. Java API can be accessed without the internet.
  3. I use the washing machine to wash my clothes. I can read from the display on it what it can do, and that I should push a button for it to do it.
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#580

  1. An Application Programming Interface, or API, is a way to programmatically interact with software component where the complexity of how that component or resource performs its actions is abstracted away.

  2. The Java API references predefined methods and attributes of the Java language available to anyone who has installed the Java Development Kit. This API is not web based. The Twitter API, however, is web-based and allows users to programmatically access Twitter data.

  3. Every time I turn on a light switch, I am interfacing with my house’s wiring system and my city’s electrical grid. I don’t how the city provides electricity to my house or how my house’s internal wiring provides that electricity to the room, but I do not need to. All I need to know is that flipping the switch will provide a room with light. The complexity of the system is abstracted away.

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#581
  1. API is a term used to describe the way prgrams can interact with eachother.
  2. The Twitter API is a web-based API whereas the Java API is included in the Java Development kit.
  3. The alarm system in my house allows me to shut down or activate certain senctions and also allows me to exclude certain alarms (fire, water, …) if want.
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#582

What is an API? Reading Assignment:

1) What is an API?
An API (Application Programming Interface) is a specification of possible interactions with a software component. Also known as longstanding concepts in computer programming.

2) In the article the author compares Java API to Twitter API. What is the main difference between these two APIs?
The main difference is that Java API is a Library of software components installed with each Java Development Kit but Twitter API is a web-based and must be accessed by making requests over internet.

3) The section in the article about abstraction is important, try to understand it and write down an abstraction from your daily life.
Open a garage door - hit “Open” button on the wall (it does operations I do not even think about or act on).

G.

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#583
  1. What is an API?

Toolboxes, components, parameters, specifications that let you interact with a software component so that you will not build from scratch.

  1. Java API is an installed program and can be used offline while the Twitter API is web-based and is used real-time.

  2. Daily Life Abstraction - Good habits once formed take up most your time and increases your productivity with less effort.

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