API development & API integration Services

What is an API

• “APIs are just 'glue' that join bits of software together”.
• “The term APIs can mean many different things. Sometimes it means hardware APIs, or the Java API. Right now when you hear the term API, it probably means web API or an API built using REST”.
• "The API is a way to build connections".
• "An API is a specification of the dialect that computer programs or their components use to exchange data with each other or with the hardware they are running on. One program uses an API to tell another program “ask for this, and you will get this in return”.
• "An API is a piece of code that allows different applications and databases to communicate and share data".
•  "In the simplest terms, an API is a set of code conventions which programmers can use to interact with an external data source or web service".

API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of certain protocols, specific standards, and tools, which are used by a programmer to integrate different applications. APIs enable access to another app or platform. Due to APIs, applications can interact with each other. Use of API not just simplifies programming, but it also enhances user experience, increasing the popularity of your application and facilitating user’s control over different applications. Today, all advanced applications are being improved by specialized APIs.

There are different types of APIs. They vary depending on what programming language is used – procedural, object-oriented etc.:

1. For applications (Google Maps API, Facebook API, Twitter APIs, LinkedIn API);
2. For a web-based system or a website (Amazon, eBay);
3. For operating systems (POSIX is for Linux and Berkeley Software Distribution, Microsoft Windows API);
4. For a database system;
5. For computer hardware;
6. For a software library.

Also, there three main policies for releasing APIs: private (for internal use), partner (for business partnerships), and public (for public use).

Here is a list of some more famous APIs: Google APIs (Gmail API, Analytics API, YouTube API, Tasks API, Books API, Calendar API etc.), The Yahoo! APIs (Flickr API, Delicious API, Maps API, Answers API etc.), Awe.sm, Yelp API, Foursquare APIv2, Digg API etc.

As for API’s design, it aims at providing only those tools, which end users expect. The principle of information hiding is used here not to bother users with unnecessary for them complex implementation details.

Each API goes with documentation where all the information on what the services API offers and how to use them is given. API documentation is also necessary for developers because it includes the description of classes and methods, typical usage scenarios, code snippets etc.

The Business Benefits Of Using APIs

• Integration with third party apps, which provide real-time functionality or manage computations, without needing to write your own complex algorithms (this is true for e-commerce, finance and other industries).
• Empower your lead generation or CRM apps with social insights (by matching email addresses against social media profiles).
• Integration web/mobile apps with a cloud storage of files.
• Integration mobile apps with a remote backend to push files and retrieve data.

Our API development and integration services

Belitsoft offers custom API development services and API integration services to facilitate information exchange between your program and other systems or applications.

• Custom API development. We apply an individual approach and offer unique API development solutions. We provide clean and well-structured programming code, use best development tools, and build high-performance APIs for your needs.
• Mobile API development. We create APIs, which let make payments, appointments, find a geolocation etc., to enrich your mobile applications.
• API development for Cloud computing. Cloud-based APIs allow integrating different applications into the Cloud. They can be cross-platform or specific. We develop cloud-based APIs for social networking, keeping/sharing documents, photo, video, and other data in the cloud etc.
• Web API development. Web API is a set of Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) request messages. Building Web APIs, we use latest representational state transfer (REST) and resource-oriented architecture (ROA) styles. We also create mashups and web APIs for social media.
• API Integration. API integration means setting smooth communication between diverse software components, technologies, and programs: integration with Google, Yahoo!, PayPal, Amazon, Skype, Facebook and Twitter; integration with  JS, XML, RESTful APIs; integration with Oracle web services and much more.

We successfully build APIs of high performance and security for any industry and right for your specific requirements. Our developers use modern methods to provide data processing in different programming languages. We orient on your needs and always meet customers’ expectations.

Contact us today to get professional IT consultation on your API development/integration idea.

Our API specialists, who have extensive experience in providing API development and integration services, using C, C++, Java, and PHP, create powerful, secure, and easily maintainable APIs.