History and Purpose of APIs

There are many reasons why the contemporary API revolution has been so successful. The following article will examine the evolution of APIs from their origin to the present day.

Early History

The idea of API is as old as the idea of computing. The idea goes back to the 1940s when British computer scientists Maurice Wilkes and David Wheeler worked on a modular software library for EDSAC, an early computer. Methods followed by British Scientists in data cataloging are similar to the methods of data documentation of APIs.

The book published by Wilkes and Wheeler named "The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer" also contains the published specifications of API. In 1974, the term API was introduced to the field of databases by C. J. Date. With the advent of remote procedure calls and web APIs, the API concept grew in popularity.

Modern History

Roy Felling’s work revolutionized the API evolution process. It is generally believed that the contemporary API originated with Roy Falling’s 2000 dissertation “Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures.”

In his work, Felling outlined the concept of Representational State Transfer (REST) and explained his idea of a network-based application programming interface. Furthermore, he compared his work with the old concept of library-based APIs. After his work, web APIs, namely XML (Extensible Markup Language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), were adopted in 2000 and still commercially dominate the web of APIs.

Evolution of API alongside WWW

Since the inception of the internet era, the potential of the World Wide Web was extensively understood. Consequently, several companies started providing services online. Most of the companies employed the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) to build distributed systems. The drawback faced by SOAs was that they were limited to the organizational boundaries. Therefore, this anomaly led companies to realize the data-led transformation. A tool for data documentation was launched, and that tool was based on XML, later standardized as SOAP.

Following its success, the API was quickly adopted by e-commerce behemoths. eBay developed its own API in 2000, dubbed eBay application programming interface. Amazon.Com web services were introduced on July 16, 2002, enabling programmers and developers to integrate Amazon content. The API was built using the XML standard.

Purpose of APIs

Simply stated, an API is a collection of codes that define how one application communicates with another. APIs simplify the developer’s job. It assists developers with application development by automatically merging particular programs according to the developer’s preferences. It simply reads the request of one program, delivers it to another program, and collects responses to queries.

Instead of providing a manual algorithm to its users for copying and pasting a file, API provides a function that copies file from one location to another while saving developer from a hassle of knowing what happens behind the scenes. API shares the work of an application. It is also seen as generating the desired action for the user. For instance, without putting gamers into manual work, it gives the option of inviting other gamers for a group match.

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