1 00:00:00,330 --> 00:00:01,830 Narrator: So let's talk a little bit 2 00:00:01,830 --> 00:00:04,470 about the importance of API. 3 00:00:04,470 --> 00:00:08,220 So the question basically is, why do I need an API? 4 00:00:08,220 --> 00:00:10,500 Is it really such an important part 5 00:00:10,500 --> 00:00:12,720 of the software that I'm developing? 6 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:15,270 So the answer is a sound yes. 7 00:00:15,270 --> 00:00:17,250 It's really, really very important. 8 00:00:17,250 --> 00:00:19,023 And let's understand why. 9 00:00:20,820 --> 00:00:24,750 So the APIs that you will develop for your backend software 10 00:00:24,750 --> 00:00:27,960 will be used, first, by your user interface, 11 00:00:27,960 --> 00:00:30,210 and you will understand it in a minute. 12 00:00:30,210 --> 00:00:34,230 In addition, it can be used to extend your app's reach, 13 00:00:34,230 --> 00:00:37,170 and also to allow monetization. 14 00:00:37,170 --> 00:00:38,343 Let's understand this. 15 00:00:39,210 --> 00:00:41,463 First, about the user interface. 16 00:00:43,080 --> 00:00:46,890 Modern apps are built mainly for web and mobile. 17 00:00:46,890 --> 00:00:49,620 You probably know that, you probably use web apps 18 00:00:49,620 --> 00:00:52,560 as well as definitely mobile apps. 19 00:00:52,560 --> 00:00:54,840 Now, the thing to know about mobile apps 20 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:59,190 is that in order for them to access your backend server, 21 00:00:59,190 --> 00:01:01,950 your backend server must have an API 22 00:01:01,950 --> 00:01:04,233 in order to communicate with it. 23 00:01:04,233 --> 00:01:07,331 There is no other way for the mobile application 24 00:01:07,331 --> 00:01:08,958 to access your operations data. 25 00:01:08,958 --> 00:01:11,000 You should remember that the mobile app 26 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:13,318 is a separate application, 27 00:01:13,318 --> 00:01:16,881 runs on the separate machine, on a separate process. 28 00:01:16,881 --> 00:01:20,901 It has no other way to access the data and the actions 29 00:01:20,901 --> 00:01:23,917 that are stored and executed on the server. 30 00:01:23,917 --> 00:01:25,537 So if this is your plan 31 00:01:25,537 --> 00:01:27,766 and you are developing a mobile app, 32 00:01:27,766 --> 00:01:30,030 then you must use an API. 33 00:01:30,030 --> 00:01:32,640 In addition, web clients that are built 34 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,790 using the single page application method 35 00:01:35,790 --> 00:01:38,013 also must have an API on the server. 36 00:01:38,850 --> 00:01:41,550 If you are not familiar with a single page application 37 00:01:41,550 --> 00:01:44,100 or SPA method, 38 00:01:44,100 --> 00:01:48,000 then suffice to know that SPA means that the frontend, 39 00:01:48,000 --> 00:01:51,060 the part that the end user sees on his screen, 40 00:01:51,060 --> 00:01:54,360 is built using sophisticated fronted framework, 41 00:01:54,360 --> 00:01:57,120 such as React, or Angular or Vue, 42 00:01:57,120 --> 00:02:00,150 and they run completely independent from the server. 43 00:02:00,150 --> 00:02:03,870 So for those applications to access the web server 44 00:02:03,870 --> 00:02:05,310 they are using API. 45 00:02:05,310 --> 00:02:08,009 So the HTML is not render on the server 46 00:02:08,009 --> 00:02:09,900 like some old fashioned framework, 47 00:02:09,900 --> 00:02:12,090 such as the web forms or JSP, 48 00:02:12,090 --> 00:02:14,160 but is rendered directly on the client. 49 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:16,860 And if the client needs some data from the server 50 00:02:16,860 --> 00:02:19,590 it must access some kind of API. 51 00:02:19,590 --> 00:02:22,260 Another important aspect of exposing an API 52 00:02:22,260 --> 00:02:26,100 is that it'll allow your application to extend its reach. 53 00:02:26,100 --> 00:02:30,390 For example, take a look at this screenshot from My Outlook. 54 00:02:30,390 --> 00:02:34,200 Do you see the weather widget on the top of the screen? 55 00:02:34,200 --> 00:02:37,260 In this case, it shows the weather in Washington D.C.. 56 00:02:37,260 --> 00:02:41,460 So if you look closely at this rectangle with the data, 57 00:02:41,460 --> 00:02:43,830 you will see that the source of the data 58 00:02:43,830 --> 00:02:47,310 is from a website called foreca.com. 59 00:02:47,310 --> 00:02:49,680 So this is not a Microsoft website, 60 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,720 this is not part of Outlook. 61 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:54,270 But what happens here is that Outlook 62 00:02:54,270 --> 00:02:58,470 accesses the API exposed by foreca.com 63 00:02:58,470 --> 00:03:01,740 and displays the data it gets back from it. 64 00:03:01,740 --> 00:03:04,590 So just think what would happen to your application 65 00:03:04,590 --> 00:03:06,570 if Outlook will access it 66 00:03:06,570 --> 00:03:09,840 and uses the data that it'll get back from it. 67 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,540 It'll help boost your application popularity, 68 00:03:12,540 --> 00:03:14,793 and it'll definitely help your business. 69 00:03:15,690 --> 00:03:17,850 And speaking about business, 70 00:03:17,850 --> 00:03:21,540 API can be used also for monetization proposals. 71 00:03:21,540 --> 00:03:24,060 You can charge users for accessing your data, 72 00:03:24,060 --> 00:03:26,310 and there are a lot of examples for it. 73 00:03:26,310 --> 00:03:28,770 For example, take a look at this page 74 00:03:28,770 --> 00:03:30,810 from the Twitter developer's website. 75 00:03:30,810 --> 00:03:34,230 So as you can see, if you want to access Twitter's API, 76 00:03:34,230 --> 00:03:38,400 and Twitter's API is one of the most popular APIs out there, 77 00:03:38,400 --> 00:03:40,860 then there are three levels of API access 78 00:03:40,860 --> 00:03:42,480 you can choose from. 79 00:03:42,480 --> 00:03:44,610 The first one is Standard, which is free 80 00:03:44,610 --> 00:03:47,310 and allows you certain level of API access. 81 00:03:47,310 --> 00:03:50,550 But the others level, Premium and Enterprise, 82 00:03:50,550 --> 00:03:51,840 are paid level. 83 00:03:51,840 --> 00:03:54,390 And if you want to use them to access more features 84 00:03:54,390 --> 00:03:58,200 or to allow more usage for the API then you must pay. 85 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:00,450 And this is definitely a potential income 86 00:04:00,450 --> 00:04:01,833 you don't want to miss.