Web API

Originally these were most commonly in the form of native plug-in browser extensions however most newer ones target standardized JavaScript bindings.

A server-side web API consists of one or more publicly exposed endpoints to a defined request–response message system, typically expressed in JSON or XML.

[3][4][5] Webhooks are server-side web APIs that take input as a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) that is designed to be used like a remote named pipe or a type of callback such that the server acts as a client to dereference the provided URI and trigger an event on another server which handles this event thus providing a type of peer-to-peer IPC.

Endpoints are important aspects of interacting with server-side web APIs, as they specify where resources lie that can be accessed by third party software.

RESTful web APIs use HTTP methods to access resources via URL-encoded parameters, and use JSON or XML to transmit data.

[8] The number of available web APIs has grown consistently over the past years, as businesses realize the growth opportunities associated with running an open platform, that any developer can interact with.

One of the most common forms of interacting with these web APIs is via embedding external resources, such as tweets, Facebook comments, YouTube videos, etc.

In fact there are very successful companies, such as Disqus, whose main service is to provide embeddable tools, such as a feature-rich comment system.

[10] As the number of available web APIs has grown, open source tools have been developed to provide more sophisticated search and discovery.

[11][12] Many companies and organizations rely heavily on their Web API infrastructure to serve their core business clients.

This API returns JSON, a type of data format intended to be understood by computers, but which is somewhat easy for a human to read as well.

The resulting photo could be embedded in a website, automatically sent via text message, or used for any other purpose envisioned by a software developer.