The “Why” of API development: Exploring the core motivations

Before venturing into the realms of API design, we should understand the reasons why. We are at this stage having some sort of business or technical requirements we have to fulfill. Instead of diving straight into API design or development, let’s first understand the ecosystem into which we are going to contribute with our new piece of software. It’s a system of communicating vessels and seemingly trivial updates can affect multiple of its elements. As the first exercise, let’s explore the fundamental reasons that necessitate the creation of APIs.

The essence of APIs

APIs are often built to provide data to our applications without the need to tightly couple the presentation layer with data layer. However, APIs are not just for building applications. They enable data integration across multiple platforms. APIs are commonly used to provide access to various datasets. This way you gain access...