What Does It Mean To Provide An Api

I cam across this question, Does XYZ application provide an API? Now I am not really sure what it means to 'provide' and API. Now let's say that I am working on an Android app a

Solution 1:

To provide an API means that you are providing a(n) server-side endpoint that your application, or a programmer, can hit with some sort of request (typically a HTTP request).

How you implement that is up to you. Most people these days try to provide some sort of HTTP endpoint that has a well-structured URL scheme (i.e. www.mysite.com/users/statistics) that, depending on the HTTP operation you are trying to perform, will behave differently. This is typically known as a RESTful API (what is and isn't considered RESTful is always a hot topic for debate, but it is what people call these types of APIs). Check out http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/webservices/library/ws-restful/ for a good intro to this.

To answers your questions directly:

1. You are able to control who can use your API, and how often they can use it.
2. Technically, yes, things hitting your backend service will be considered API calls.
3. You will need to describe your current architecture before anyone can give a decent comment as to what you will need to do to "provide" an API.
4. There are a multitude of things you can do to control access to an API - ranging from basic authentication, through to issuing API keys/tokens. Take a look at http://www.slideshare.net/rnewton/making-sense-of-api-access-control for a decent explanation.

Hope that helps!