Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ How Do You Build an API Server?

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

An application programming interface (API) allows one computer program to access data from another. It defines how the request is made, what authentication (if any) is required, and the format of the data. This article briefly describes how to build one using a Node.js application called Express. This is essentially server-side Javascript. The data can be accessed by a remote service or even by Javascript running on your web browser. Though the article doesn't mention it, cloud providers are offering API Gateways. These sit in between your API and the open web and offer "features such as rate limiting, authentication and key validation." This is all relevant to be because gRSShopper is based on a set of APIs, which means I (or you!) can redesign the front end anyway we want.

Today: 3 Total: 102 [Direct link] [Share]


Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

Copyright 2024
Last Updated: Nov 21, 2024 10:16 a.m.

Canadian Flag Creative Commons License.

Force:yes