course-notes.md

Introduction to APIs 2019

THERE IS A NEWER VERSION FOR 2023!!!!

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This course has been deprecated! That means that you should no longer use it, you should head to the newer 2023 version!

2023 notes

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Unit 1 - What is an API

In this unit we'll define what an API, or Application Programming Interface is and why you should use them.

Video 1 - Welcome

👋 Hello and welcome to the course and your notes! Make sure you check this area out often!

👀 - Beginner content

• freeCodeCamp.org is a great place to get started and I recommend jumping right in.
• freeCodeCamp on YouTube provides a wonderful collection of beginning programming courses. I recommend the 🎥 JavaScript and 🎥 Python tutorials.

📚 - Designing API Content

• ProgrammableWeb 101 - What exactly is an API
• moseif - API Guide

Video 2 - Defining Interface

📚 - Learn more

Media Player APIs

Don't worry about understanding it, just appreciate their complexity

• Android MediaPlayer API documentation
• iOS Media Player API documentation
• Web Audio API

Video 3 - Defining API

📚 - Learn more

• mdn - Web APIs
• Google vs. Oracle on the rights to the Java API

Video 4 - Remote APIs

• Wikipedia - SOAP
• Wikipedia - Remote Procedure Call (RPC)
• SOAP and REST at Odds
• SOAP vs. REST
• REST vs. RPC

Video 5 - How the web works

• Wikipedia - HTTP
• mdn - How the web works
• Space Jam Website

Video 6 - RESTful API Constraint Scavenger Hunt

• Wikipedia - Representational State Transfer

Unit 2 - Exploring APIs

Video 1 - Exploring an API online

• Spotify for Developers
• Spotify - Search API {BETA}
• Lizzo's Spotify Page
• Lizzo's Spotify ID: 56oDRnqbIiwx4mymNEv7dS

👀 - Explore

ProgrammableWeb provides a categorized directory of APIs. API List provides categories and a powerful search feature.

Video 2 - Using an API from the command line

• Twilio
• Twilio Console
• SMS Getting Started
• Check out the jq tutorial for parsing JSON on the command line

cURL

Mac OS

Using Homebrew

brew install curl

Download

⬇️ - Download cURL for MacOSX

Windows

⬇️ - Download cURL for Windows

NOTE: If you are running PowerShell, delete the curl alias for Invoke-WebRequest by adding the following command to your profile (C:\Users\<username>\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Microsoft.PowerShell_profile.ps1):

Remove-Item alias:curl

📚 - Learn More

• cURL manpage
• Wikipedia - POST (HTTP) (For info on form-urlencoded search for "Use for submitting web forms)

Video 3 - Using Postman to explore APIs

⬇️ - Download Postman

The Twilio Messages API URL is:

https://api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/<Your Account SID Here>/Messages.json

Make sure to replace that SID with your Account SID which can be found in the Twilio console

Video 4 - Please please Mr. Postman

⬇️ - Many wonderful API Collections can be downloaded for exploration in the Postman API Network

📚 - Learn more

• How Collaboration Works in Postman
• Official Postman Tutorials

Video 5 - Using Helper Libraries (JavaScript)

• Install Node.js
• Install Python 3
• Install Visual Studio Code
  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux

To use the Twilio Node Helper Library

npm install twilio

📚 - Learn More

• Wikipedia - Boilerplate code

Video 6 - Using Helper Libraries (Python)

• Install Python 3

To use the Twilio Python Helper Library

pip install twilio

Unit 3 - Using APIs

Video 1 - Introducing the project

• Glitch

📚 - Learn more

• Slack API
• Sportsball APIs
• Philips Hue API
• 🎥 Furby Hacking 101 w/ Chloe Condon

Video 2 - Flask app

⚠️ Several students have reported that cloning sets up a default Glitch application. If this happens to you, in the Glitch app that is created choose "Tools >> Extras >> Git Import and Export >> Import from GitHub" when prompted enter "craigsdennis/intro-to-apis-node" or "craigsdennis/intro-to-apis-flask"

Complimentr Flask GitHub repository is located at https://github.com/craigsdennis/intro-to-apis-flask.git

• Twilio docs - Create a Message with Python
• Twilio docs - List all Messages with Python

📚 - Learn more

• Flask documentation
• Environment Variables

Video 3 - Dealing with API Limits

📚 - Learn more

• Nordic APIs - Everything You Need To Know About API Rate Limiting

Video 4 - JavaScript Single Page Application

⚠️ Several students have reported that cloning sets up a default Glitch application. If this happens to you, in the Glitch app that is created choose "Tools >> Extras >> Git Import and Export >> Import from GitHub" when prompted enter "craigsdennis/intro-to-apis-node" or "craigsdennis/intro-to-apis-flask"

Complimentr Node.js GitHub repository is located at https://github.com/craigsdennis/intro-to-apis-node.git

• Twilio docs - Create a Message with Node.js
• Twilio docs - List all Messages with Node.js

📚 - Learn more

• mdn - Async / Await
• Vue.js - Getting Started
• Node.js - Getting Started

Video 5 - Moar JavaScript and Recap

• Wikipedia - REST Architectural Constraints

Video 6 - Review

I built a little Twilio application using Studio and some APIs to gather your feedback.

Please text FEEDBACK to me at (503) 461-5537 and let me know what you thought about this course! (You can also call if that's your jam)

👋 Thanks for hanging out! 🙏 Keep me updated on your journey 💪🚀!

@craigsdennis

PS. If you want to keep on learning for free, I can't recommend the video game TwilioQuest 🎮 enough.

📚 - Learn more

• 📹 Understanding Webhooks on freeCodeCamp is a course I made about reverse APIs, APIs that call you instead of you calling them. Come hang out some more!