Application Programming Interface (API)

When you need your software application to “talk” with another application, our development team will need an Application Programming Interface (API). An API is essentially a software middleware that allows two applications to talk to each other.

Typically, an API include a set of programming functions that will allow your application to interact with the external software application you wish to connect with.

To simplify, our team in Glasgow will use an API to make a specific “call” or “request” to send or receive information from the third-party application. This communication uses a programming language called JSON. API can make four basic request methods:

GET

PUT

POST

DELETE

Our team at Tentacle uses APIs to help quickly deliver information in multiple types of applications such as e-commerce, social media apps and deliver data to mobile apps.

There are many benefits of using API, e.g, security, speed, and scalability. Also, three different types of API’s are commonly used today:

Open API - this is typically available to everyone.

Partner API - Designed by companies to offer API to strategic business partners.

Private API - as the name suggests, they are meant to be used internally by companies.