Basic Concepts of Web APIs

In computer programming, an application programming interface (API) is a set of subroutine definitions, protocols, and tools for building software and applications. In simple terms, the API is a form of interface that has a series of a feature that allows developers to access a particular device, operating system, or other service features.

As the name suggests, the Web API is an API that can be reached through the web using the HTTP protocol. It is a concept and not a technology. We may build Web APIs using various technologies, such as Java, .NET, etc. Twitter’s REST APIs, for example, provide programmatic access to read and write data, using which we can incorporate the functionality of Twitter into our own application.

The ASP.NET Web API is an extensible architecture for creating HTTP-based systems that can be used on multiple devices such as the web, windows, smartphones, etc. in various applications. Except that it sends data as a response instead of an HTML view, it functions more or less the same way as the ASP.NET MVC web application. It’s like a network server or a WCF server, except the difference is that only the HTTP protocol is allowed.

If you are looking for a back end to develop native applications for mobile devices that do not support SOAP, ASP.NET Web API can serve your purpose. Almost any native application running on a mobile device other than the Windows one can use ASP.NET Web API as backend. Hence, a web API is good for using with native applications which require web services but not SOAP support.

ASP.NET web API is an ideal choice for the development of client web applications that heavily rely on AJAX and do not require extensive configuration settings like WCF REST services.

The Web API supports a light architecture powering HTTP services to reach a broader range of clients. As compared to WCF, it is much easier and quicker to create services using ASP.NET Web API.

Hence, Web APIs can be helpful in various significant ways in web application development especially when it is an ASP.NET web application.

Examples:

• YouTube API — Allows you to display videos on a web site.

• Twitter API —Allows you to display Tweets on a web site.

• Facebook API — Allows you to display Facebook info on a web site.

There are some limitations of Web API as well.WebApi is not a platform for continuous services. Its purpose is just to provide an interface to your application over HTTP. And also Web API related to latency in request processing times and bandwidth usage but that depends on your network and the actions you are performing.