API (Application Programming Interface), Explained

Our Technical Services Leader, Jorge Rojas, will walk you through the basics of application programming interfaces, which integrate most modern software tools to achieve more with fewer resources.

An API, in the simplest terms, is a middleman that exchanges information between two separate pieces of software. You can think of an API much like Marty McFly’s Delorean in Back to the Future. In this example, the car itself is the program to which information is being delivered. The steering wheel and gas pedal are the interface with which the end user is interacting. Thus, the flux capacitor is the API, exchanging information between the two and allowing you to travel in time.

We hope you enjoyed our explainer on APIs. Let us know what you think in the comments, and subscribe for more content that covers the hottest topics in project management and beyond.

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[KevinBall-]

I like the overview of things you might use them for, and I like that you're trying to draw a metaphor to make things accessible, but the metaphor feels a bit strained, and there could be a lot more about what it means to be an "interface". Maybe a lot of examples...

An API is an interface that lets a program interact... if you wanted to send a message to facebook, you'd type in a box and click a button... an API would be a way for a computer program to itself do the same thing. If you wanted to turn on your car you'd put in a key and turn it... if you wanted to let your phone turn on your car, your phone would need an API to do it.

The other thing that isn't fully captured here is the read side of things... if you want to as a human learn the score of a basketball game, you can look at a picture on the TV and read the scoreboard. But if you want a computer to learn the score, it doesn't understand pictures, it needs an API to do the same thing...

[harishanif]

Great and informative video! Glad there’s a simple explanation of what an API is. API’s are talked about in non-technical conversation and most non-techies don’t know what it means, glad you guys were able to explain it well!

[LetsTalkJF]

Quality of the video is good, though as an intent to inform I would say it falls short. Kevin's comment below provides much more along the lines of an explanation than anything I heard or saw in the video. I'd say this video comes across as much more of a sales pitch for and API than anything else due to frequent use of buzzwords and flashy terms. And it's not much use to give a sales pitch to someone that doesn't know what your talking about anyway.


Using a fictitious object like a flux capacitor (which is already dating the audience) to explain something abstract isn't helpful to the general populous. A more easily understood illustration could be used. For example, ordering a computer. The manufacturer has a large warehouse of components, this could be thought of as the database. You want a computer, which will be the program output. The manufacturer has provided a catalog of configurations you can order. You can have whatever you want, so long as it is from this catalog, and contains all the necessary components to build your computer. That catalog, that list of options which includes boundaries like not ordering combinations of parts that can't work together, or requesting components from a different manufacturer. That is the API. It is the structured path through which the client (you) requests the data (the computer) from the database (the warehouse).


You could use just about any other ordering system as an example. Food from a menu, drinks from a bar, parts for your car. Could even go more basic and use making a phone call, though I think that could require some additional intuitive leaps.


In short, don't call the video "Explained" where no actual explanations are provided. breaking out the acronym isn't explaining, it's just defining.

[hajiimpressions]

looks like a good explanation, but audio is bad

[stupid_realityxx]

this literally did not explain anything... all you done was list the uses for an API and said it shares data across software, when there is so much more to say and that was not nearly enough to call it an explanation. this was merely a light description.