What are API - APIs in JavaScript?

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Feb 8, 2024

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What is an API?

An application programming interface (API) is defined as a set of tools, routines, and protocols. One of its purposes is to help import a complex functionality into a code. APIs abstract complex functionalities and allow them to be used in code using an easy syntax. A real-world analogy of obstruction can be as follows: getting water through a tab, Wherein how the water flows from the water tank through the pipe is not known to the person drinking the water.

In simple words, APIs allow developers to communicate with other software easily. They help improve the productivity of developers. Today, APIs are commonly available for many popular applications.

APIs in JavaScript

An API, or Application Programming Interface, in JavaScript, is a set of rules and protocols that define how a JavaScript program can interact with an external system or service, such as a web server or database. JavaScript APIs provide a way for developers to access and manipulate data or services provided by other systems in a standardized way. They typically include a set of methods, parameters, and data structures that define how to access and use the external system's resources. JavaScript APIs can be divided into three main categories: browser APIs, third-party APIs, and server-side APIs.

Browser APIs are built into web browsers and allow JavaScript to interact with the web page and browser environment, including the Document Object Model (DOM), XMLHttpRequest, Fetch API, and Web Storage API. Third-party APIs are provided by external services and can be integrated into a JavaScript application, such as the Google Maps API or the Twitter API. Server-side APIs, such as the Node.js APIs, allow JavaScript programs to interact with a server or backend system. To use a JavaScript API, developers typically make HTTP requests to the API endpoint using libraries such as Axios or Fetch. The API response is usually in a specific format, such as JSON or XML, which the developer can then parse and use in their JavaScript application. Some APIs require authentication, which typically involves obtaining an API key or token that must be included with API requests.

There are many APIs available for JavaScript that build on the core JavaScript language. These APIs give programmers an option to use functionalities with client-side JavaScript code. Browser APIs and third-party APIs are the two categories of APIs available for JavaScript.

• Browser APIs: Built-in functionalities of the web browser that use the built-in data of the computer. The Geolocation API is one good example of a browser API. It provides an easy JavaScript function to retrieve location data through the browser. This is done by interacting with GPS hardware using low-level code such as C or C++ in the background. The background process is abstract here.
  
  
• Third-Party APIs: These are available on the Internet and not built into the browser. A counter used in websites to count the number of visitors is an example of third-party APIs. The code provided by the service provider needs to be embedded in the web page.
  
  
  

Using Responsive APIs

There are many APIs built on top of JavaScript that can deal with text, events, and objects of DOM. these days, websites are often accessed on mobile devices. Responsive APIs play an important role in providing an improved user experience and performance.

A few responsive APIs are explained as follows:

• Page Visibility: This API helps to listen to events and determine whether the web page is being viewed by the user or the browser is being minimized. The behavior of the web page can be changed based on this data. For example, one can push the background video store image carousel from moving on to the next slide in the slideshow if a user is not viewing the page.
  
  
• Online/Offline API: This API helps to find whether the Internet is ON or OFF and saves the work that the user has been doing instead of showing an alert message of connections being lost.
  
  
• Navigation Timing: This API helps to analyze the performance of a web page such as information on the uploading time of the prior page accessed and the total time required for loading and the current page.