REST API
A REST API is a standard way for different software systems to communicate over the internet, using common web requests (such as retrieving, creating, updating, or deleting data) to exchange information.
How it works
It is based on a set of design principles known as REST (Representational State Transfer). It operates on resources (usually identified by URLs) through standard HTTP methods such as GET and POST, and returns data in formats like JSON. This standardization makes it easy and reliable for applications built on different platforms and in different programming languages to integrate with each other and exchange data.
Examples
- 1.A weather app fetching real-time weather data from a weather service provider's server
- 2.A mobile shopping app checking product availability and submitting orders to the website's backend server
- 3.Multiple internal software systems within a company (such as CRM and finance systems) sharing customer and transaction data
