CS343-01: Third Quarter Blog

Software Constr – Blog Three

APIs are something we come across a lot, especially the openapi.yaml file we look at for the Microservices Activities in class. So, I wanted to make a note for myself on what APIs are, the benefits, and the different types.

Firstly, what is an API? API stands for Application Programming Interface and it’s a mechanism that helps two software components communicate by the use of definitions and protocols. “For example, the weather bureau’s software system contains daily weather data. The weather app on your phone “talks” to this system via APIs and shows you daily weather updates on your phone.” And there are four different ways an API works: SOAP, RPC, Websocket, and REST.

The SOAP API is short for Simple Object Access Protocol API and it works with the client and server exchanging messages and other the use of XML. Remote Procedure Calls, RPC, APIs has the client complete a procedure on the server in which the said server would send back an output. Websocket APIs use JSON objects to pass the data being used and supports a two-way communication between the client apps and the server.

REST API is one we had just worked with in class and had homework on. It’s the most popular since it’s flexible and has the client send a request as data to the server which starts to use internal functions to return outputs back to the client. REST stands for Representational State Transfer that defines functions such as GET, PUT, DELETE, etc., all of which we have seen in the openapi.yaml file.

The REST API has four main benefits: integration, innovation, expansion, and ease of maintenance. Integration is used to increase development speed since the functionalities won’t have to be made from scratch because of the fact that APIs are used to integrate new applications with existing software systems.

Innovation is where industries can change with new arrivals of apps entirely since they can make changes without having to rewrite the entire code at the API level. “Businesses need to respond quickly and support the rapid deployment of innovative services.”

Expansion is something where it’s a unique chance for businesses to meet the needs of their customers across so many different platforms. “For example, maps API allows map information integration via websites, Android,iOS, etc. Any business can give similar access to their internal databases by using free or paid APIs.”

And finally, ease of maintenance. REST APIs act as a sort of gateway between systems. They each make changes internally so that the API isn’t impacted and in response? “Any future code changes by one party do not impact the other party.”

Source: https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/api/

CS-343, CS@Worcester, Quarter-3

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Progress of Allana R by Allana Richardson and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

CS348-01: Quarter Three

Software Process Management – Blog Three

In class, we’ve been learning about clean code and heard the name “Uncle Bob” multiple times. Because of this, I was trying to learn more about him and what else I could from clean code. Which led me to the SOLID Design Principles.

To start, Uncle Bob is a man named Robert Cecil Martin who had been born on December 5, 1952, according to Wikipedia and many other sites I had looked at. He is an American software engineer, instructor, and author – most recognized for promoting many software design principles and for being an author and signatory of the influential Agile Manifesto. He authored many books, articles including being the editor-in-chief of a C++ Report magazine, and was the first chairman of the Agile Alliance. He actually was self taught and joined the software industry at the age of seventeen. “Martin is a proponent of software craftsmanship, agile software development, and test-driven development. He is credited with introducing the collection of object-oriented programming (OOP) design principles that came to be known as SOLID.”

What is SOLID? Well, it’s an acronym for the five different object oriented design principles that Robert C. “Uncle Bob” Martin had created. In this acronym, there lies the Single Responsibility Principle, Open-Closed Principle or OCP, Liskov Substitution Principle, Interface Segregation Principle, and finally Dependency Inversion Principle.

One of the principles, the Open-Closed Principle, was something that I remember learning in class, even having to refer to it for a question in an activity we did. Modules, classes, and functions should be open to extensions, but closed for modifications. The rest however? Those were new and at first glance, my immediate thought was to Google it.

According to Wikipedia, the Dependency Inversion Principle or DIP is “a specific methodology for loosely coupled software modules. When following this principle, the conventional dependency relationships established from high-level, policy-setting modules to low-level, dependency modules are reversed, thus rendering high-level modules independent of the low-level module implementation details.”

The Liskov Substitution Principle in the source says that “if class A is a subtype of class B, then we should be able to replace B with A without disrupting the behavior of our program.” It was actually initially introduced by a woman named Barbara Liskov in 1987 where it was based on sustainability so that nothing would break.

Barbara Liskov is an American computer scientist who was a pioneer contributor to many programming languages and distributed computing. Some of her most notable work includes “the introduction of abstract data types and the accompanying principle of data abstraction, along with the Liskov Substitution Principle, which applies these ideas of object-oriented programming, subtyping, and inheritance.”

Source: https://medium.com/@lavishj77/solid-design-principles-dd3c0afe7e97, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_C._Martin, and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Liskov

CS348, CS@Worcester, Quarter-3

From the blog CS@Worcester – The Progress of Allana R by Allana Richardson and used with permission of the author. All other rights reserved by the author.

API and Modern Day Development

This article, “Understanding the Role of
APIs in Modern Backend Development” starts with what API is and how it is now
backbone of modern-day development. APi is a set of rules and protocols that
allow software components to interact and expose backend functionality or data
to other services, clients, or platforms. The article shows and explain different
types of APIs used in backend development, REST APIs, GraphQL APIs, WebSocket
APIs. Rest Apis are most used architecture, based on HTTP methods, makint it easy
to scale, maintain, and secure. GraphQL APIs are improved alternative of Rest
Api, which allows clients to request exactly the data they need in a single
query, reducing the number of requests sent to the backend. WebSocket APIs on
the other hand, enables bi-directional real-time communication between the
client and server making it useful in applications like chat, live updates or
gaming. After that the article explains best practices for using API in backend
development and they reasons why we need them; Use Clear and Consistent Naming
Conventions, Document Your API, Implement Security
This article ends with to popular backend frameworks for building API and why
they are used. Examples include Node.js (Express.js), Django (Python), Ruby on
Rails (Ruby) Spring Boot for Java,
Laravel for PHP, and FastAPI for Python.

I
recognize that one of the areas I’ve struggled with is using and designing APIs
effectively. Therefore, I chose this article, because it tackles that with
further knowledge that I currently have. I found out in the world there are
more to the Apis than just the Rest Apis and this article well explains other alternatives
to Rest Apis and what they do and its examples. Not only that, but the article also
explains important things to do while using Apis and popular framework that I can
later learn to improve my skills as full stack engineer.

From this article I learned not just new
apis and where to use them but also the framework section gave me context about
which tools I might adopt based on my need and language, and their benefits. It
also expands on what I need to do further implements the practice so I might not
be confused in the future while building apis and that they are they are
contracts between system. In the future, I will try to better document
everything while checking out the version control more carefully than before.
Not only that, but I might also try out different Apis to make Backends the other
APIs like GraphQL APIs, WebSocket APIs seems useful in parts for future
practices.

https://medium.com/@danieltaylor2120/understanding-the-role-of-apis-in-modern-backend-development-36059945db1d