Web API And Web Service: Introduction And Key Differences

Category: Technology

Appsierra Web API and Web Services are those overlapping tech terms that people regularly get confused with. You may have heard these words being used mutually but are they even the same thing? While they do overlap, sometimes Web Services and APIs are two very different concepts….Learn more What is a Web API? The acronym API stands for Application Programming Interface. It's a software interface that allows two programs to communicate with one other without the need for the user to intervene. What is a web service? A web service is a set of open protocols and standards that are extensively used for data transfer between systems and applications….Learn more Key differences between Web API and Web Services. 1. Web services are a set of open-source protocols and standards for sharing data across systems or applications, and steam web API interview questions are a software interface that enables two apps to connect without the need for human interaction. 2. For REST, SOAP, and XML-RPC communication, web services are utilized, whereas API is used for any type of connection….Learn more Types of web services Web services can be used in different ways. The two types of web services used widely are SOAP and RESTful web services. SOAP: SOAP is a protocol that was designed before REST came into the picture. The main idea to create SOAP was ensuring that programs built on different platforms and programming languages khud security exchange data. REST: It was created to deal with components on a physical device, such as media components or even objects. Any web service defined on the principles of REST could be known as a RESTful web service. Features of Web API Here are some essential features of API: • Efficiency • Wider reach • Customizable • Personalization • Data ownership • Easy integration with GUI • Time effective • Language-independent Features of Web services Here are some features of web services: • Loosely coupled • Synchronous or asynchronous functionality • Ability to support remote procedure calls • Supports document exchange Differences between Web API and Web Services Below are some differences between Web services and API: Web Services API All web services are API. All APIs aren't Web services. Web services support XML. Web API mediatypeformatter is used to format responses into XML, JSON, or any other format. Web protocol is required to send or receive data over the network. Therefore it has a heavy-weight architecture. API has a lightweight architecture. Any client who knows XML can utilize web services. A client who knows JSON or XML can utilize the API. REST, SOAP, and XML-RPC are the three communication methods used by Web Services. APIs can be used for any style of communication. Web services only support HTTP protocol. API supports HTTP/HTTPS protocol: URL request and response headers, etc. Advantages of API services Below are some benefits of using steam web API services: 1. Because it works with HTTP verbs GET, PUT, POST, and Remove, the API enables standard to create, read, update, and delete activities. 2. API helps in exposing service data to the browser. 3. It is dependent upon HTTP that is easy to define and expose in a RESTful way….Continue Reading