API

Commentary and examples of using the APIs (Application Programming Interface) for software like CiviCRM, MediaWiki, Drupal and web services. Both API documentation and API tools. OS and Internet API references.

Application Programming Interface (API) is the information about the exposed or 'public' variables, methods and objects or classes that a system makes available to the developer who wishes to interface with the system programmatically. If you make an API, documenting the API is a critical software development function. In documentation terms, the API must almost be treated like a separate piece of software within or "attached" to the main program.

Programming APIs

SWIG wp:Swig (Executive Summary) helps application developers create an API. Several open source projects leverage SWIG, such as Subversion, wxPython and wxWindows. In turn, other developers can enhance these generic APIs to customize them for a particular programming language. For example Python developers can use pySVN while work is underway to expand the PHP interface. See more in the Subversion manual http://svnbook.red-bean.com/nightly/en/svn-book.html#svn.developer.usingapi

Resources

• http://gotapi.com publishes several API references for everything from HTML and CSS to DocBook and Drupal. This organized list of API references also features fast, as-you-type search.
• Some other documentation resources:
  • http://api.kde.org/ APIs of the K Desktop Environment
  • http://doc.trolltech.com/ APIs of the Qt GUI Toolkit

MediaWiki API

An example of the MediaWiki API in use is at the "Wiki Report" project. Another very interesting example is the Wiki Apiary (clever name!)

Example Questions

Here are some example requests to the API

1. https://freephile.org/w/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=extensions With no 'format' argument, you will get a "pretty" HTML output that you can read in your browser.
2. https://freephile.org/w/api.php?action=query&meta=siteinfo&siprop=extensions&format=json With *json* explicitly requested as the format, you can get values suitable for actual programming.

Developer Tools

Among other tools, you're going to need to look at HTTP requests and responses to develop web services using APIs. So, check out tools like Wireshark (https://www.wireshark.org/), the Network Monitor in Developer Tools for Firefox, or Chrome Developer Tools

Integrators

Companies like IFTTT (If This Then That) and Zapier offer API integrations so that you can tie together applications via their APIs without any coding.