API stands for ” Application Programming Interface “. It helps the website to work more efficiently. In addition to that rendering of website works much faster.
Its a software helps to interact any different software to communicate with each other without any user intervention. Whenever we search weather or any other in app is a result of it.
Not only in web world, even in OS, it has many APIs. For example we can perform some function like open, close, update, rename, save, share everything are result of OS API.
Web-api are very popular. It travels through internet and uses HTTP methods to perform any action. based on status code from server response, We known the status of web action.
API vs Web service
Web service and API are very confusing terms in web world. Whereas both tires to smoothen the web resource fetching from server to client device.
We could say all web service are API but not all API are web service. Web service supports xml file whereas the other accepts many file formats like json, xml, html, etc.
Furthermore web services are not protocol agnostic. While it can use any design style or protocol. web service mostly restricted to some strict rules to follow.
Advantages
Giving API access allows for only once and published automatically. So Its easy for creation, usage, sharing and distribution of data among various user.
The main advantage of it is automation. It allows machines to handle its workload of its own. This helps to reduce manual automation work.
Its very easy for user to integrate this to their software. Its highly helpful for even non tech person to understand the work slow of this.
Disadvantages
Though it reduce the time of render website, but creation of it is very tough and difficult. Since it need to meet lot of physical constrains in web.
It has fixed scale, while if the track in it increase, it automatically crashes. While developer do API testing also, it actual functions stops. It need high maintenance.
