Introduction to Building your first API - What are we building?
This course will teach you how to build a simple REST API with Frends using an example. You will also learn where to find resources to enhance your knowledge and build more complex APIs.
A REST or RESTful API is an architectural style for an application program interface (API) that utilizes HTTP requests to access and use data. The data can be used to perform GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE operations on resources, which involve reading, updating, creating, and deleting data types.
To facilitate development and present a simple example that you can modify and build upon, the course provides a sample template for the first API.
Introduction to API definition
When creating an API, one of the most important tasks is to design the API definition. The API definition is a blueprint that outlines the interface of the API.
The API definition specifies:
The type of data and functionality provided by the API
The available operations that can be called by the API client
The parameters used by each API operation
The data returned by the API operations and the format in which it is returned
In Frends, the API definition is created using the OpenAPI Specification, which is a standard API description format. This specification was formerly known as the Swagger Specification and is sometimes referred to as OAS.
The next article is Example on Building your first API definition