What Is a REST API and How Does It Benefit Your Company?

Today, most companies use REST APIs to build web services, because it’s a logical and well-established standard. For example, we use them to sign in with Facebook or Google services.

REST APIs make communication easier between back-end applications and different front-end presentations. In short, they’re essential for developing cross-platform applications.

What is a REST API?

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules that allows data to be exchanged between applications.

To do this, the API handles the basic operations needed to work with data through HTTP requests.

The main requests are:

• POST: creates data on the server.
• GET: retrieves data from the server.
• DELETE: deletes information.
• PUT: updates information.

On the other hand, REST (Representational State Transfer) refers to the set of constraints used to make HTTP requests follow the guidelines defined in the design.

The constraints of the REST architecture are:

• Client-server: the server and client applications must be separate.
• Stateless: requests are executed independently, meaning each request performs a single action on its own.
• Cache: the API should use caching to avoid repeated calls to the server.

What types of APIs are there?

There are three types of APIs:

• Private: used internally between applications within the company, that is, locally.
• Partner: used between business partners or to allow integration between different programs.
• Public: can be used freely. They’re usually provided by a company so developers can integrate them with other applications.

What are APIs used for?

APIs can be used in very different ways. For example, an application can provide an API to retrieve information from a page, whether by clicking a button or simply by loading a site, which triggers an API call and completes an action.

For this, some applications give us tokens with the right license so the API can be consumed and we can access that information.

So, APIs are used to communicate between applications in order to exchange information quickly and securely.

What are the benefits of a REST API for your company’s projects?

One of the most important factors of using a REST API is how easily it connects with other applications and interfaces, which lets you add features or information to a website or app in a simple, fast and secure way.

Specifically, this architecture offers the following benefits, among others:

• Separation between client and server: one of the advantages of the REST API model is the separation between front-end and back-end applications, which protects the storage of your data.
• Cross-platform: this feature is essential for app development. In fact, when data is received in JSON format, the app’s front end can process it properly to display the results according to the service that was called.
• Objects in REST are always handled through the URI. The URL, and no other element, is the unique identifier of each resource in a REST system, and it lets us easily access information to read, create, update or delete it.

What are the advantages of using a REST API?

Using a REST API instead of other alternatives like SOAP has many advantages. The most notable are:

• A REST API can be used regardless of the programming language or technology used to build the project.
• Since it works with any type of technology, it can shorten development time.

And you, are you ready to use a REST API in your web project to grow your business? At Pixzelle Studio we’d love to hear about your project and work with you to make it a reality, always with the best technology. Get a quote with us!