What does API (Application Programming Interface) stand for? What is Web Service? What are the advantages of each issue and what are the differences between them? You can find the answers to all your questions in the article below.
WebService
Web Service (Web Service) – by definition is a set of open protocols and standards that are widely used to exchange data between systems or applications. Applications are written using various programming languages and run on multiple platforms. Enables the use of Web services to exchange data on computer networks.
A web service can be:
- defined using a service description language – a standardized language, based on XML, is WSDL
- published and retrieved in a service registry using a standard mechanism, such as UDDI
- invoked remotely through a defined interface
- part of other Web services or be a composite of them.
Web Service has proven effective in enterprise networks, through which companies or institutions, build systems for exchanging data between their branches, as well as using it for connectivity with partners and customers. In such smaller, well-controlled environments, it is easier to achieve compatibility of data transmitted between service components, and the openness of standards makes it easier to create client solutions, regardless of platform. The use of Web services allows software components to interact with each other over the Internet, regardless of their location and implementation details. As a result, they are able to replace older solutions developed for private networks, such as CORBA or DCOM, while thanks to their relatively simple design, they can gain much greater popularity.
Types of Web Service
SOAP – is a protocol that was designed before the advent of REST. The main idea behind the creation of SOAP was to ensure that programs built on different platforms and programming languages could exchange data securely.
REST – was designed specifically to work with components, such as multimedia components, files and even objects on a specific hardware device. Any web service that is defined on REST principles can be called a RESTful web service. REST uses methods: HTTP GET, POST, PUT and DELETE to work with the required components.
Advantages of using Web Service
- It offers faster communication within and between organizations.
- Each service exists independently of other services.
- Interoperability is a top priority.
- Using Web services, an application helps publish its messages or functions to the rest of the world.
- Web services help solve interoperability problems by allowing different applications to combine data.
- Web services help exchange data between different applications and different platforms.
- It allows applications to communicate, exchange data and share services with each other.
- Web services are specifically designed to be used as a request for a website and help receive data.
- It serves as building blocks that facilitate the reuse of web service components in other services. Web services are implemented in web standards such as standard Apache and Axis2. It provides services based on WSDL, HTTP.
API
API – Application Programming Interface – is a software interface that allows two applications to interact without any user intervention. APIs provide products or services to communicate with other products and services without knowing how to implement them.
An API implementation is a set of routines, protocols and IT solutions for building computer applications. In addition, an API can use graphical user interface components. A good API simplifies the construction of software, reducing it to the programmer connecting blocks of elements in a set convention.
It is defined at the source code level (e.g., a library for a particular programming language). The task of an API is to provide the appropriate specifications for subroutines (e.g. functions in a library), data structures (e.g. what an array contains), object classes (define an object in a programming language) and required communication protocols (e.g. http).
Advantages of API
- The API supports traditional CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) actions as it works with HTTP GET, PUT, POST and DELETE verbs.
- The API helps make service data available to the browser
- It is based on the HTTP protocol, which is easy to define, exposed in full REST.
Basic API functions:
- Data ownership
- Time efficiency
- Customizability
- Personalization
- Performance
- Easy integration with GUI
- Greater reach
- Language independent
Differences between Web Service and API ?
- A web service is a set of protocols and open source standards used to exchange data between systems or applications, while an API is a software interface that allows two applications to interact without user involvement.
- Web service is used for REST, SOAP and XML-RPC communication, while API is used for any style of communication.
- Web service only supports HTTP, where API supports HTTP/HTTPS protocols.
- Web service supports XML, while API supports XML and JSON.
- All Web services are APIs, but not all APIs are Web Services.
Source: Blog Home | MuleSoft Blog