13.0: API Intro

This section provides an overview on APIs. Remember, this is different from the API we created to add the starred option.

Terms

• MVC: Model View Controller

• API: Application Programming Interface

• JSON: JavaScript Object Notation -- Something is serializing and de-serializing

• XML: Extensible Markup Language

Discussion

• Eleven Note is an n-tier data application with an MVC presentation tier

• The services tier does not care that it's MVC

• The services tier allows us to have more presentation tiers

• An API is a set of calls that we'll expose to other programs through endpoints

• The API will serve to allow other presentation tiers to gain access to those service methods

• This way we can allow as many presentation layers as we want to access our data

• Web API uses the same routing engine as MVC

Types of Web Service Communication Protocols

• REST: Representational State Transfer

  • JSON based

  • Uses verbs that represent the intent (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE)

• SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol

  • XML based

• We will use REST

Postman

• Postman is an indispensable tool that helps us with testing

• It acts as a fake client for making requests - we can log in, add notes, update notes, and delete notes from the database

• It will allow us to:

  • Test the endpoints of the API

  • Make a request to an endpoint

  • Behave as a client (a web or mobile application) without having a user interface

• Install Postman

Next, we'll test the login page with Postman.