What is an API?

Aug 15, 2023

What is an API?

In this video we will see what an API is and how it works!
I will explain you the reason behind using the API as simply as possible.
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Content

0 -> Guys, whenever I used to think about online e-commerce websites, airline ticket booking and food ordering

5.2 -> How these things work?

7.2 -> then there I used to get very surprised upon hearing

10.2 -> that the e-commerce websites

11.7 -> you guys are a seller and you've been given a dashboard

16.2 -> and you people on an e-commerce store such as amazon

20.8 -> can sell anything there

22.7 -> and a lot of customers... what they can do is buy this stock.

28.7 -> and in this customer need to talk to amazon's store.

32.8 -> dashboard is something we say, is given to affiliated marketers

37.7 -> they need to talk to amazon.in's main system.

42.8 -> How is all this possible?

45.2 -> One very good example we have is of airline ticket booking.

48.8 -> There are a lot of third party websites.

50.6 -> One name that comes to my mind is Ixigo, there's via

54.8 -> and then paytm also book flights.

58.2 -> and with that nowadays amazon, flipkart are also joining this line.

63.9 -> So when this happens, that all these players

67.9 -> can talk to different airlines like Indigo or Vistara or GoAir.

75.1 -> It means that these individual companies could fetch no. of seats that are left, that are booked

81.9 -> or if any ticket is booked, they can update in their systems.

84.6 -> Because if a flight of GoAir is booked

88.8 -> So i need to tell GoAir that I'm Flipkart

91.2 -> I have booked one of your seats, so you don't let the same seat get booked from someone else.

95.4 -> So thats why different systems need to talk to and fro with each other.

99.7 -> What will happen in this, if I'm Amazon

102.2 -> and assume that you are Vistara. Would you say that

106.2 -> "Hey amazon, this is my password, do whatever you want in my server"?

109.7 -> This don't happen. Okay

111.6 -> Because me as vistara or as amazon cannot trust the other company directly.

117.8 -> If here I have Amazon, which I don't, but just assume that I have

123.2 -> then I won't trust Indigo, Indigo won't trust me.

127.4 -> And we'll try to communicate in such a way that the trust remain maintained and the work get done.

133.6 -> So this "trust remain maintained and work get done" is carried out by API

139.1 -> What is API?

140.5 -> Full form of API is Application Programming Interface.

144.6 -> Application Programing Interface.

147.4 -> And this API makes it possible for different systems to interact with each other. Okay

154.8 -> So, this third party website.. rather I'd write websites

158.6 -> those by talking to respective airlines, can do to and fro communication

163.4 -> that hey I booked this seat of yours and you gave me this much commision

169.8 -> I booked this much seats of yours and these type of conversations... Communication keeps on going. Okay

174.8 -> So, what is API if I talk about its definition.

177.8 -> So, API is such a mean that helps these systems in exposing some of their data.

185.4 -> So, I'll write API here that whenever Amazon will talk to Indigo,

190.7 -> it will have to talk to API, it can't talk to the system directly.

194.2 -> So, what will happen here is that Amazon will say to Indigo... It will say

198.4 -> that I want to book one of your seats.

200.7 -> I am Amazon. Okay.

202.8 -> it will do it something like... Amazon to tell Indigo that I have booked a seat of yours.

207.8 -> Suppose Indigo folks have given an end point of their website.

210.8 -> They have said that you indigo.com, maybe its goindigo.com.

214.9 -> goindigo.com/makebooking/ put your API key here.

221.6 -> Everybody has their secret key and

223.6 -> This key is to recognize are you the Amazon?

228.8 -> Its not like I go to Indigo and say book 4 seats and they'll book 4 seats.

233.5 -> It will not happen.

235.2 -> You need to hit this end point with proper API key.

238.1 -> and what API will do is it will, first of all, go to the back hand and

242.2 -> check if Amazon has send this request.

245.2 -> If yes, we will book the seats and send the ticket to Amazon.

249.2 -> but if someone is trying to hack into the system or someone is entering wrong API key

253.8 -> then there we'll... Our response will be... We get a request. API got a request.

259 -> Amazon told Indigo, here is my API key and

262.5 -> here is that person's name whose ticket needs to be booked.

265.8 -> Book one ticket from Delhi to Bangalore. Okay

269.2 -> So, Indigo's API will say, stop.

272.2 -> Understand API as something like Indigo is a bungalow, inside the bungalow the owner is sitting.

276.8 -> and API is a security guard.

278.6 -> API will say, STOP! Tell me what is your API key? Show me your API key.

284.7 -> It will match it with its API key. Did we give some API like this to the Amazon?

289.7 -> If yes, okay. Your ticket can be booked.

291.8 -> If not, then it will repulse it away.

295.2 -> It will say invalid credentials. Get Out. Okay

298.7 -> It will say something like this and if it keeps on trying again and again then it'll block it.

302.3 -> There are systems like that too.

304.1 -> So, basically API is an interface that is, it is a way with whose help you can talk to the actual system.

311.1 -> Now, the actual system, that is, Indigo's server

314.8 -> or if they use some distributed computing in the backend.

319.5 -> They cannot give access of all those servers, clusters to Amazon or everyone who are booking through their website.

326.1 -> Its not like Indigo will say "Here's my password, do booking after login." to amazon,flipkart, ixigo, via or paytm.

333.2 -> We are living in a world where people don't reveal there facebook password,

337.1 -> so these business's password is a much bigger deal.

339.2 -> So, what's done here is, everyone is given their own individual API key

344.2 -> and it gets known that who booked how many tickets by sending what requests.

347 -> everything will keep getting locked in their system.

350.1 -> So, the advantage of having API is that, the websites like Flipkart, Paytm, via, Ixigo, all these third party websites,

358.1 -> they don't have to give anything to Indigo

361.8 -> there was no need to give them their credentials.

362.8 -> Just imagine, if Indigo here share all of them its password

367.8 -> and someone would destroy their system

370.8 -> Ixigo would say its Flipkart's fault, Flipkart would say it's amazon's fault,

373.4 -> Amazon would say its Via's fault.

375.1 -> So, to avoid all of this, everyone is given their own individual key.

378.6 -> and they'll login from their API key, they will authenticate.

381.9 -> and after authenticating whatever they want to do, get tickets booked

384.9 -> or other services that they provide...

387.6 -> our airlines like how seats are there, how many window seats are left?

392.4 -> Which seats inside the aircraft are paid and which seats are free?

397.2 -> when did which flight got cancelled.

399.8 -> Different end points are made for all this different information.

403.2 -> and all the information that they should get, that is, these third party websites should get

408.8 -> only that is provided to them. They'll not tell them how much money are they making

413.5 -> or Indigo, Vistara, GoAir, they won't tell, what is their employees data

418.9 -> because what will Amazon, Flipkart, Ixigo, Via and Paytm do about their employees data.

423 -> They will get the information they want and for this they have to...

426.1 -> and for this information they have to send a request along with the API key.

430.8 -> So, they will send a request with their API key and they will get the proper response.

435.3 -> So, whenever there's a need for Amazon, Flipkart, Paytm to talk to Indigo, API acts as a middleman.

440.9 -> API said talk to me, don't talk to them. The owner is resting. Talk to me.

445.1 -> Tell me what you want. Authenticate everything. If its the right person, their work is done

451.1 -> otherwise show them the door. Okay

453.9 -> So this is how API works.

456.1 -> Now food ordering and online e-commerce websites have this type of APIs.

461.5 -> I would like to mention one thing. Its not necessary for an API to always have an API key.

466.8 -> Its not necessary. Some APIs are free.

468.5 -> Suppose I want to expose some data to the public and I have fast enough servers

473.1 -> then I can distribute the data even without an API key.

475.3 -> I'll say, hit a 'get request' on the website and take data. Okay

479.8 -> So, people expose API in this way too.

481.8 -> But in most of the cases, API data is obtained with the help of API key.

486.8 -> You have to authencicate first after that you get the data.

489.8 -> Now we'll look at a very local example. Okay.

492.9 -> What will be that local example?

494.8 -> Suppose you guys go to a restaurant to eat food and assume I'm the owner there.

500.8 -> Just assume it. What's the harm in assuming?

503.3 -> And here I feed you delicious Palak Paneer.

507.8 -> And you come here and I'm sitting here on the counter. This is me sitting here. Okay.

512.8 -> And suppose this is where the food is cooked. Here our chef's are sitting. Okay.

516.4 -> And this is our waiter. Okay.

518.6 -> So this waiter will ask you what food you want to eat?

521 -> This waiter will ask you .

523 -> You won't directly come into the kitchen and tell that you want to eat Palak Paneer.

527 -> or barge into my office and tell me that you want to eat Palak Paneer.

530.1 -> You won't do it yourself. Assume this as API.

532.6 -> Assume this waiter as API. This waiter is an API.

534.6 -> You approach him first and tell him to bring me one Palak Paneer, one roti, one Paneer Masala.

539.1 -> Whatever you want to eat... Chowmein,omlette.

542 -> Whatever you want to eat, you tell him and he notes all that.

544.8 -> He says,'good' X 4. Then he goes into the kitchen.

547 -> Sometimes he comes back and say, Sir Palak Paneer is not available, Sorry.

551.8 -> This is how API also returns its request.

553.8 -> You give a request to the API, sometimes API can deny you too.

557.6 -> It can say that you only had to hit me 40 times during a day,

562.2 -> and you are hitting me for the 41st time.

564.8 -> That's why you won't get the data. Sometimes, you get these types of responses from the API too.

568.8 -> So, who is the actual system? Actual system is the chef who is cooking the food.

574.1 -> and who is API? API is this waiter

576.8 -> who is taking in requests from you. Asking what do you want?

579.6 -> It wrote down the order. Now it goes inside and tell who...

584.8 -> she goes and tells the chef and if food is available

588.6 -> our chef sir will tell you that food is available, its cooking.

591.2 -> Sometimes you send a request to the waiter... you ask 'Food isn't prepared yet?'

594.8 -> Waiter tells you that its being cooked, wait a bit.

596.6 -> So, this is also a type of response.

597.8 -> You interact with an API and give it a request and its gives you back the response.

603.6 -> If I summarize all this, then I'll say

606.2 -> API is used so that the access to the actual system is not given to someone else.

611.8 -> We made an API and whoever wants some data of our system,

617.9 -> we'll expose those API to them, give them end points with proper API key

623 -> And with the help of this API key, we'll monitor who accessed how much data from our server.

628.2 -> API keys in most of the cases are documentations.

631.1 -> API keys are docs in which all information is written on how to use and rules.

638.1 -> How many times you can hit the API,

641.1 -> how many times you can send more request after extracting data.

645.1 -> What data can you extract from the API?

648.2 -> All this is written in documentation in most of the cases.

650.8 -> If I take one example of an API, it is news API that I taught you in Java Script course probably.

656.8 -> In that we made an app that extract all the news from a website with the help of a news API.

663 -> There was an API key too.

664.7 -> Now the Times of India folks... they don't want to give you the access to the whole server's database.

671.4 -> They cannot afford this. If you do something wrong there, they might get in a lot of trouble.

676.8 -> That's why they give you an API, oh okay, you want this, you take its API.

681.9 -> and after that if you want more data, send them another request.

686.2 -> So in this way for monitoring...

688 -> With this, APIs are used to safely handle the data.

693.9 -> It also lets you know who is using how much of data?

696.9 -> and with this your monitoring,that is,how much your actual system is being used and by whom.

702.2 -> All this is also done very well. I hope you guys understood API.

705.9 -> If you have understood, start using APIs.

710 -> I have taught you to use a lot of APIs

712.4 -> for example our news API. There's weather API.

715.2 -> So learn to access these types of APIs.

718.8 -> I have put on my web development, java script course. I would tell you that after this video

723.7 -> you go... if you are a web developer, you can checkout my web development course. Checkout my Javascript course.

729.1 -> We have seen a lot of APIs there. I hope you all liked this video.

733.2 -> Thank you so much for watching this video and I will see you next time.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0Qqpn8ymko