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APIs

Kim Swenson
Kim Swenson
6,379 Points
Posted by Kim Swenson
Kim Swenson
6,379 Points

Are there any courses or videos that give a basic overview of what APIs are and what they do?

I'm looking for just a broad explanation of APIs, some examples of how they are used, what they do, etc. I see the Alexa Skill course, but I don't see any mention of explaining APIs. Thanks in advance!

2 Answers

Raffael Dettling
Raffael Dettling
32,998 Points
Raffael Dettling
Raffael Dettling
32,998 Points

Actually there is an API video for Alexa .. (https://teamtreehouse.com/library/topic:apis) But i recommend to take the normal starter courses like java or c# where API´s are also shown.

Katie Wood
Katie Wood
19,141 Points
Katie Wood
Katie Wood
19,141 Points

Like Raffael pointed out, there are courses that involve APIs, but not really any courses that are just about APIs, other than the one he mentions. In general, though, APIs are methods or protocols that you, as the programmer, can utilize to accomplish certain things more easily. APIs can do all kinds of things, but an example is in a web application, where you might use an API to obtain certain data for your application to use. An example API is Open Weather Map, which you can use to get weather data.

If you use a weather API, basically your application opens a request to the API, and gets a response back. Depending on the format of the response, you will handle the response and format it in a way that you can use, then you're free to use that response to offer things like real-time data.