What is an API?

API is the acronym for “Application Programming Interface” – a set of rules and definitions that allows software applications to communicate with each other.

Like a user interface allows a human user to communicate with a computer, an application programming interface connects computers to each other without human interaction.

An API can be described as a kind of “messenger” that requests data from a server and delivers the response back to the application.

What is API Integration?

When people mention APIs, they are usually talking about web services.

Every web service is an API, but not every API is a web service.

An API integration is the connection between two or more systems or applications via their APIs, that enables those systems to exchange data.

Types of API Protocols

Below is an overview of the different types of API protocols:

Webhooks

More and more webapps are using a technology called webhooks.

Although APIs and webhooks have a similar function, webhooks work in the other direction.

Webhooks are essentially a subscription to receive data when a particular event happens, which means that you

do not actively have to request data.

While a traditional API integration needs to pull data from a server periodically, webhooks enable the webservice to push this data over at the instant something happens. The request that a webhook makes can either contain the data required for the integration to work or prompt the integration server to make a subsequent request to get the required data.

Examples of API integration:

Benefits of API integration