This week I have chosen to continue to write about API’s and specifically the differences in all the API’s out there as REST shouldn’t be the only type of protocol used and learning more about the different kinds of API’s used will be a great boost in the future. I have chosen a blogpost that I think goes over these different kinds of API’s well enough for someone to start learning about the different kinds of API’s
In summary, Castellani goes over the main types of API,s which are Open API’s, Partner API’s, Internal API’s, and Composite API’s. An Open API is also called a public API in which it is publicly available to developers and user without much restrictions. The focus of this API is on the outside external users for third party services/data. A partner API is an API that is only given access to specific business partners and are used for outward communication outside the company. An internal API is also called a private API has many restrictions and is only worked on by the internal development teams. A composite API is a combination of multiple API’s and services. Castellani also goes over different protocols such as SOAP which stands for simple access object protocol which came before REST. It was the first to bring standardization in how to manage service using network services but was seen as too strict. There is also RPC protocol which stands for remote procedural call protocol which is the oldest out the three given. This protocol is hard to maintain and update and was used for client code execution.
This blogpost has given new bits of information on the different kinds of API’s out there. The way we have changed from the different rules and protocols to what we mainly use today. The previous versions were restrictive in their own ways and eventually were let go for what we have today. I wonder if eventually we will let go of REST and create a new set of rules to follow. There might be some situations where a certain protocol would be preferred over the over but people just mainly go for REST which is what we are working with in our API’s. There is also the parts on the different types of API’s and the one I have worked on is perhaps and open API and would like to see on how something like a composite API would look like to work with and handle.
Source: https://blog.axway.com/amplify-products/api-management/different-types-apis
From the blog CS@Worcester – kbcoding by kennybui986 and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.