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What is a web service endpoint?
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Closed 4 years ago.
I am currently reading the documentations of AlchemyAPI. In the docs, they have used the term called "API Endpoint" and I am not able to figure out its corresponding meaning and explanation.
Any clarification in this regard would be very helpful to me.
Thanks.
In HTTP/REST/etc API vernacular, an 'endpoint' typically refers to the URL for a single resource or operation. It is sometimes referred to in combination with the HTTP method used to access the URL.
Basically, it's the URL you access to get some data or take an action via the API.
The endpoint is a web service, defined by a WSDL file
Microsoft use the term endpoint in different context. Check this for reference.
For example:- From the wiki source;-
ENDPOINT Defines the address or connection point to a Web service. It
is typically represented by a simple HTTP URL string.
Related
I still don't know if google maps API uses the SOAP protocol or if it's a RESTful service. I've read its documentation but it doesn't say anything about that.
I know this is an old question but I wanted to try to give an answer anyway, because I do not agree with the logic in #Brick's answer (supports JSON and XML, therefore is RESTful).
There are quite a few different Google Maps APIs, so it is hard to answer your question without you specifying which one you mean. However, for an API to be RESTful, it has to comply with the following five or six constraints:
Client-Server
Stateless
Cacheable
Layered system
Code on demand (optional)
Uniform interface
So an API supporting JSON and XML might, or might not be, RESTful, depending if it complies with the constraints above.
I think Google Maps API is not a REST API.
Google maps API give us tools, methods and objects, when we include its API, We can use these methods to build a map, we need to give data to these objects in order to build our map.
So, we are not really asking for a REST resource, we don't use a REST client to access it and we don't get json or xml data.
A rest API works with standard HTTP methods (like GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE) and returns/add/edit/delete data from its resource.
REST does not enforces message format as XML or JSON or
but it supports both. But SOAP is XML based message protocol it doesnt support JSON.
Since Google Map APIs support both json and xml , it can be safely said they they are implemented in REST.
Further if you look at the URI of google map api , you will see that they are resources based just like REST URI should be ,for example to get the directions resource you hit this URI
- https://maps.googleapis.com/maps/api/directions/json?origin=Boston,MA&destination=Concord,MA&waypoints=Charlestown,MA|Lexington,MA&key=YOUR_API_KEY
Has anyone ever tried to integrate QlikView BI application with SimPro business management software? If so, would be interested to know if you were successful and if so how?!!
Dorey.
Jonathan from simPRO here.
I'm not aware of any clients that have an integration with QlikView but it is a well respected reporting platform with a myriad of ways to extract data from other systems.
A quick scout around their documentation tells me that the easiest option for integration would using their QVSource API connector.
Details are here: http://www.qvsource.com/Connectors-For-QlikView/General-JSON-XML-SOAP-Web-API-Connector-For-QlikView
For simPROs API you would use this in "POST" methodology - ie: supplying the post data as per our API docs at: http://api.simpro.co . Our API uses OAuth authentication and there is dome detail and examples on using that with QVsource at: http://wiki.qvsource.com/General-Web-Connector-For-QlikView.ashx
Whilst we may not be able assist technically with setting up the QlikView system our technical support department can assist with any queries you have in regards to our API calls etc...
Hope that is of some help!
I am going to try and respond to your dilemma, while being a QV expert for the last 8 years I am not too familiar with simpro, however I did quickly browse through their API docs here -> http://api.simpro.co/
I have noticed that they support 3 formats, namely soap, json and xml. For qlikview you would choose xml. I have also noticed that they support 2 authentication methods namely basic auth and O Auth. IN this scenario you would be using basic auth (so you can pass a username and password via the url) as this will also work perfectly with Qlikview.
In your Edit Script, you will notice a "Data from files"-> Web Files, then in the popup you can enter the url from where you would retrieve your information from.
Note you need to pass format=xml to the url, along with your basic auth username and password to the relevant url (which you will find in simpro's docs), for any other format you will need QVSource which has a fee attached.
I hope this has pointed you in the right direction.
I'm new to this game so I might be misunderstanding things. Actually, if someone tells me that I'm misunderstanding things, it will be a favor. Maybe this person will be considerate enough to show me the right path. But...
One of the "guidelines" or "best practices" of REST as it applies to Web Services (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_state_transfer#Applied_to_web_services) is that you should use the proper HTTP methods when making calls (did I misunderstand it?) to REST API's.
But looking at many API implementations on the web, what I see is that 100% of the calls made to them are actually GET calls that, depending on their URI, will be interpreted by the API as being of one of the HTTP verbs or methods.
So, for example, looking at the REST API documentation for Twitter (https://dev.twitter.com/rest/public) which, in principle, only defines two verbs/methods (GET and POST), actually have all calls sent as GET and, based on the URI in the GET call, are interpreted by the API and acted upon.
Example:
GET statuses/lookup: https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/lookup.json
POST statuses/update (PUT?): https://api.twitter.com/1.1/statuses/update.json
In both cases, the call itself was made using GET and the last part of the URI defined it as a real GET or as a POST.
In summary, to be truly RESTful, shouldn't client side implementations of REST API's for web services use the proper HTTP verbs/methods?
What am I missing?
You're missing a lot, but don't worry about it, most people are.
The fact is that very few so-called REST APIs publicly available on the internet are really RESTful, mostly because they are not hypertext driven. REST became a buzzword to refer to any HTTP API that isn't SOAP, so don't expect for an API to really be RESTful just because it says it's a REST API. I recommend reading this answer.
From my experience, most API developers aren't aware what REST really is and believe any HTTP API that uses HTTP and avoids verbs in URIs is REST.
REST is defined by a set of constraints. Among them is the uniform interface, which in simple terms means that you should not change the expected behavior of the underlying protocol. REST isn't coupled to any particular protocol, but since it's common to be used with HTTP, they get convoluted sometimes.
HTTP has very well defined semantics for the GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, PATCH and HEAD methods, and the POST method has its semantics determined by the server. Ideally, a REST API should respond to the methods other than POST exactly as determined in the RFC 7231, but as you noticed, there are many APIs who call themselves REST but don't do that. This happens for many reasons. Sometimes there's a simple misunderstanding about the correct semantics, or it's done to keep consistency, or because of backwards compatibility with intermediaries that don't support all methods, and many other reasons.
So, there's a lot more that has to be done to be truly RESTful other than using the HTTP methods correctly. If an API doesn't get even that right, it needs to find another buzzword, because it's definitely not REST.
I can't exactly tell what your question is, but I believe there are some concepts that will help you. Allow me to elaborate...
You are correct that many APIs use a limited number of HTTP "verbs" in their API. GET/POST are the most common. PUT less so, and then all others (DELETE, HEAD, OPTIONS etc) are used with vanishing probabilities.
Dropbox Core API for file uploads allows optional PUT / POST and their stated reason is "For compatibility with browser environments, the POST HTTP method is also recognized."
Indeed the limitation is the browser. Popular web servers have no problem with all HTTP request methods and even made up ones. After all, the request method is just some string with regard to the web server.
HTML4 and HTML5 only allow GET and POST requests for form requests. If you want your API to be used through a browser at all - and hey why not, it sounds like a useful thing - then you're limited to GET/POST. For a useful discussion on this see: https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/114156/why-are-there-are-no-put-and-delete-methods-on-html-forms
Further complicating things is the fact that REST is not an industry standard. There exists no RFC, ISO or other document detailing what a "compliant" implementation must and must not do. While many folks have been playing concepts related to REST for some time, the REST concept was "invented" in the PhD disseration of Roy Fielding. A fantastic read if you're interested in such things.
Yes, according to REST, APIs should be using the correct verbs. However, as long as the documentation is clear and all GET requests are idempotent, then life should continue smoothly.
(Source: I wrote PipeThru.com which integrates 40+ APIs, Dropbox and Twitter included)
I think that this link could give you some hints about the design of RESTful services / Web API: https://templth.wordpress.com/2014/12/15/designing-a-web-api/.
It's clear that not all Web services that claim to be RESTful are really RESTful ;-)
To be short, RESTful services should leverage HTTP methods for what they are designed for:
method GET: return the state of a resource
method POST: execute an action (creation of an element in a resource list, ...)
method PUT: update the complete state of a resource
method PATCH: update partially the state of a resource
method DELETE: delete a resource
You need to be also to be aware that they can apply at different levels, so methods won't do the same things:
a list resource (for example, path /elements)
an element resource (for example, path /elements/{elementid})
a field of an element resource (for example, path elements/{elementid}/fieldname). This is convenient to manage field values with multiple cardinality. You don't have to send the complete value of the fields (whole list) but add / remove elements from it.
Another important thing is to leverage HTTP headers. For example, the header Accept for content negotiation...
I find the Web API of Github well designed and its documentation is also great. You could browse it to make you an idea. See its documentation here: https://developer.github.com/v3/.
Hope it helps you,
Thierry
You are correct. If they want to be "RESTful", their API should respect the semantics of each HTTP method.
Roughly, REST is about method Information (what the server should do), scoping information (where the server should do it) and, I almost forgot to mention, hypermedia driven (make sure you check #PedroWerneck's great answer to this question as it talks about it a little more and referecences a blog post from Fielding on the matter).
What the API you mentioned does is have both method and scoping information in the URL. That would not fit the RESTful architecture very well, as it, in general terms, tells us to:
1) use the HTTP methods the proper way (respecting their properties, such as idempotency and others), and
2) use unique URIs to identify unique resources.
Point 1 says "use HTTP methods to convey method information" and point 2 says "use URIs to convey scoping information".
Again, if an API uses GET with a specific parameter in the URI to do something (and not get something), then it is using URI to convey method information.
Now, don't be alarmed. Most APIs out there are just RESTful-ish (like twitter's of flickr's), meaning they are an animal between REST and something else. That is not bad per se, it just means they will not fully benefit from what RESTful architectures (and HTTP) have to offer.
Remember that being RESTful isn't just a matter of fashion, it does have its benefits, such as statelesness, adressability, and so on. And those can only be fully achieved by using the HTTP verbs like they were supposed to be used.
About using POST instead of PUT, considering they have different properties (PUT is idempotent, POST is not), it is not bad to use POST, as long as it is uniformly designed, that is, a programmer should not wonder what POST will do for each and every URI in the API: they all should behave the same. (PUT does not suffer from that because it already is uniform.) I talked a little more about this - and quoted Roy Fielding's say on it - in another question (check out the "Wrapping Up" part).
Consider looking at REST Richardson Maturity Model topic.
This specification is about how much RESTful particular API is:
Level 0:
Simple GET and POST request to descriptive url
/getUserByName?name=Greg
Level 1:
Divide all content in resources and define actions in resource group
/user/getByName?name=Greg
Level 2:
Proper use of HTTP verbs.
GET /user/Greg
Level 3:
Use hypermedia controls
Different APIs in interent implement different maturity level of REST. That's why some APIs don't support all HTTP features.
I need to access the Enterprise WSDL using the Salesforce API in my Java app. Can anybody help with this?
Salesforce WSDLs are only available in the Salesforce UI, not through the API. You can get them at:
Setup | Develop | API
If you find that need to get the Enterprise WSDL at runtime because your application needs to work with different sets of objects and fields, you should probably be using the Partner WSDL instead. It will allow you to get all the object and field descriptions at runtime and make dynamic API calls. There a little more work upfront, but results in a more flexible and resilient application. When the objects and fields change in the future, your application will continue to work without re-consuming the WSDL.
The WSDL is not available through the Salesforce API (to my knowledge). However, it is available through a REST call if you have the right information. First, you need a session token, generated through either an OAuth handshake or a username/password+security token handshake. You also need the name of the Apex class from which you generated the WSDL. With those two things, you can perform a GET. See the following pseudo-code for the requisite GET structure.
GET https://<SANDBOX_INSTANCE_URL>/services/wsdl/class/<APEX_WSDL_CLASS_NAME>?isdtp=p1
Headers:
'Cookie' : 'sid=<SESSION_TOKEN>'
EDIT:
I verified that this works with both Enterprise/Partner WSDLs and WSDLs generated from custom Apex classes.
You can use the following generic URLs for these WSDLs, as of v41.0:
Partner: https://<SANDBOX_INSTANCE_URL>/soap/wsdl.jsp
Apex: https://<SANDBOX_INSTANCE_URL>/services/wsdl/apex
Metadata: https://<SANDBOX_INSTANCE_URL>/services/wsdl/metadata
Tooling: https://<SANDBOX_INSTANCE_URL>/services/wsdl/tooling
Tooling (Enums): https://<SANDBOX_INSTANCE_URL>/services/wsdl/tooling?enumStyle=ALL_STRONG
What things should a developer designing and implementing an API for a community based website know before starting the heavy coding? There are a bunch of APIs out there like Twitter API, Facebook API, Flickr API, etc which are all good examples. But how would you build your own API?
What technologies would you use? I think it's a good idea to use REST-like interface so that the API is accessible from different platforms/clients/browsers/command line tools (like curl). Am I right? I know that all the principles of web development should be met like caching, availability, scalability, security, protection against potential DOS attacks, validation, etc. And when it comes to APIs some of the most important things are backward compatibility and documentation. Am I missing something?
On the other hand, thinking from user's point of view (I mean the developer who is going to use your API), what would you look for in an API? Good documentation? Lots of code samples?
This question was inspired by Joel Coehoorn's question "What should a developer know before building a public web site?".
This question is a community wiki, so I hope you will help me put in one place all the things that should be addressed when building an API for a community based website.
If you really want to define a REST api, then do the following:
forget all technology issues other than HTTP and media types.
Identify the major use cases where a client will interact with the API
Write client code that perform those "use cases" against a hypothetical HTTP server. The only information that client should start with is the response from a GET request to the root API url. The client should identify the media-type of the response from the HTTP content-type header and it should parse the response. That response should contain links to other resources that allow the client to perform all of the APIs required operations.
When creating a REST api it is easier to think of it as a "user interface" for a machine rather than exposing an object model or process model. Imagine the machine navigating the api programmatically by retrieving a response, following a link, processing the response and following the next link. The client should never construct a URL based on its knowledge of how the server organizes resources.
How those links are formatted and identified is critical. The most important decision you will make in defining a REST API is your choice of media types. You either need to find standard ways of representing that link information (think Atom, microformats, atom link-relations, Html5 link relations) or if you have specialized needs and you don't need really wide reach to many clients, then you could create your own media-types.
Document how those media types are structured and what links/link-relations they may contain. Specific information about media types is critical to the client. Having a server return Content-Type:application/xml is useless to a client if it wants to do anything more than parse the response. The client cannot know what is contained in a response of type application/xml. Some people do believe you can use XML schema to define this but there are several disadvantages to this and it violates the REST "self-descriptive message" constraint.
Remember that what the URL looks like has absolutely no bearing on how the client should operate. The only exception to this, is that a media type may specify the use of templated URIs and may define parameters of those templates. The structure of the URL will become significant when it comes to choosing a server side framework. The server controls the URL structure, the client should not care. However, do not let the server side framework dictate how the client interacts with the API and be very cautious about choosing a framework that requires you to change your API. HTTP should be the only constraint regarding the client/server interaction.