API

API = Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, or check the weather, you're using an API.

In the context of web development, an API is defined as a set of specifications, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request messages, along with a definition of the structure of response messages, usually in an XML or a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.

To read: https://github.com/Asabeneh/30-Days-Of-Python/blob/master/28_Day_API/28_API.md

HTTP

HTTP

• HTTP — is a communication protocol (application layer) which transports messages over internet between client and server. It is the request-response protocol.

REST

• Representational State Transfer (REST) is a software architectural style for web services that provides a standard for data communication between different kinds of systems.
  • Arch. style for providing standards between computer systems on web making easier to communicate.
  • Архитектурный стиль с помощью которого описывается структура передачи данных (resources and hypermedia)
• REST is a standard for exchanging data over the Web between computer systems.
• REST APIs operate on a request/response system.
• REST is the way HTTP should be used (its GET, POST, PUT, DELETE methods).
  • CRUD principles are mapped to REST commands to comply with the goals of RESTful architecture
  • Every application which has CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operation has an API to create data, to get data, to update data or to delete data from a database.
• Representational = representation of resource, how resources get manipulated.

RESTful API

REST is the set of constraints. RESTful refers to an API adhering (придерживаясь) to those constraints.

RESTful systems, are characterized by how the systems are stateless and separate the concerns of client and server.

While designing the API, sometimes not everybody following rest design styles, so RESTful term was created.

Following all principles of REST for creating API

Web services which conform to the REST architectural style are called RESTful web services which allow requesting systems to access and manipulate the data using a uniform and predefined set of stateless operations.