Web APIs are the foundation of modern web development. They allow different parts of a web application to communicate with each other and with external services without needing to know all the details of how those services work.
They enable features like data fetching, user authentication, and background tasks to be handled efficiently and securely.
- **RESTful APIs:** A popular approach focused on resource-based interactions. - Endpoints: URLs that represent specific actions (e.g., /users/{id}, /products/{id})/GET).
HTTP Methods: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.
Data Formats: JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is the most common.
GET: Retrieves data – retrieve data from the API.
POST: Creates new data – create new data, typically used for creating resources.
Let's assume you have a server with a user database.
A client makes a GET request to /api/users/{id} to get the user data.
The server responds with the user's details in JSON format.
In your browser, go to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com/users/1. You'll see the data being requested.