REST APIs completely changed the landscape of software development in the early 2000s by creating a standard method through which applications could communicate with each other. This “common tongue” allowed applications to be scaled horizontally and share data with other applications through a standard method. Communication between systems has been instrumental in the scaling of software applications used for virtually every business system today.
While there are more types of APIs available, REST APIs dominate the landscape, with over 83% of web applications choosing it over the main alternative, SOAP API. A few aspects contribute to the popularity and set REST API apart from the rest: its modest appetite for bandwidth (which is crucial for performance and speed), loose guidelines enabling more flexibility, and prioritization of data over function.
All these factors make REST API an easy choice for creating applications that get users closer to what they are looking to do, fast.
Here is an example.
Think about what happens when you visit a travel site to book a trip. You input your travel dates and location, and the site returns available flights, hotels, and rental cars that match your search criteria. Easy, right? However, behind the scenes, in the few seconds, you observed the loader bar, the site has reached out to multiple data sources (think databases, websites, and more) to compile this information for you. It checked the dates, availability, number of rooms, car classes, departure times, all in a matter of seconds.
If each of these requests had to be manually created and updated, it would require a dozen full-time travel agents and hours of waiting in their office for each change in the request. Manually connecting each app is no more reasonable than that. Different sites are built using different languages, and different platforms use different types of databases to house their data. However, REST API allows these platforms to communicate with each other easily by using a standard framework for data transmission.
This simple example of booking travel shows the importance of including an API in your application. If you plan to pass data between your application and any other system, then an API is a must. However, APIs can sometimes be difficult to create. The process is different depending on what language you are using to develop your application but in all cases requires a fair share of backend development skills and experience. There are also other considerations like security and authentication that must be included.
Up until now, creating your own API from scratch required a whole new set of skills most coders don’t possess. Fortunately, this is no longer the case with PrestoAPI, a tool that allows you to create a REST API from your data with a few clicks and almost completely eliminate the need for back-end development.
PrestoAPI is a middleware platform that easily generates customizable REST APIs from your backend data sources. Simply connect your database to the platform and then create your endpoints. The platform supports the most common calls such as Get, Post, Put, and Delete. It also supports all the most common database systems like SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Mongo DB. Regardless of your programming language or database system, you can have an API ready to use in minutes.
Worried about security and authentication? PrestoAPI has you covered! The platform supports role-based access at the application or project level and is secured through Identity Server, OAuth2, and Active Directory. You can rest easy knowing that your data is safe and secure from unauthorized access.
While it is pretty much a given that you must create APIs during your application development, you no longer have to spend all that time creating them from scratch. By using PrestoAPI, you can have an API created in minutes that provides full functionality so that your application can communicate with other applications as needed. Spend your time perfecting your architecture and UX while giving your users the best experience possible. Whether you are a seasoned developer or just beginning to dabble in API creation, this tool is one that will save you loads of time and effort.
Let’s get those apps talking! Try PrestoAPI for free today.
PrestoAPI even has a free version available for users to try their tool.
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