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APIs

Posted by Charles Jones
Charles Jones
1,415 Points

What is an API?

I am a manual tester - just trying to learn the basics of APIs. Unsure what processes I should take or what methods are best available to utilize/learn from?

If anyone has any information that would help - I'd love to take a look.

Thank you!

1 Answer

Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,427 Points
Peter Vann
Peter Vann
36,427 Points

Hi Charles!

Typically, an API is just a website endpoint that provides organized data, often in JSON format or as returned by a database query.

Keep in mind, many APIs require some kind of credentials to access, such as an API Key and/or Access Token,

So as to not reinvent the wheel, I'll provide some links:

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-is-an-api-in-english-please-b880a3214a82/

https://www.mulesoft.com/resources/api/what-is-an-api

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7wmiS2mSXY

https://rapidapi.com/blog/most-popular-api/ (Great Examples)

I use #2 (OpenWeatherMap) from the link above here:

https://www.moneyband.org/news.php (Used in the "Monterey Weather Stats" section.)

Also, a very simple example of an API is this (no creds required):

https://teamtreehouse.com/charlesjones7.json (Returns JSON data for your Treehouse stats)

I hope that helps.

Stay safe and happy coding!