An Application Program Interface aka API is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each another. The API spells out the proper way for a developer to write some code requesting services from an operating system or other applications. In a web context, APIs allow communication between two webapps (or a web app and a client that is not always a brose) without any browser.

A RESTful API, also referred to as a RESTful web service, is an Application Program Interface that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data.

A RESTful API  is based on REpresentational State Transfer (REST) technology, an architectural style and approach to communications often used in web services development.

REST technology is generally preferred to the more robust Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) technology because REST leverages less bandwidth, making it more suitable for internet usage.

The REST used by browsers can be thought of as the language of the internet. With cloud use on the rise, APIs are emerging to expose web services. REST is a logical choice for building APIs that allow users to connect and interact with cloud services. RESTful APIs are used by such sites as Amazon, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.

A la base, j’aimais bien cet article pour une partie de son contenu mais pas pour le plan de construction et comme j’avais besoin d’expliquer pourquoi certaines API ne respectaient pas les concepts REST, j’ai eu besoin de ré-écrire cette introduction.