Before we dig into what a Rest API is, let’s go over some basics concerning to APIs. First off, API stands for “Application Programming Interface”. In simple terms, it’s code that allows two or more software programs to communicate with one another. It’s just like software calling, texting, or emailing one another. Just like there are different ways to communicate with one another, software has many different ways to communicate. An early common modern day method is something called SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol). SOAP essentially informs other programs of actions that it can take such as creating an order, processing or payment, or getting shipping methods. A newer and improved way for programs to communicate is via REST (Representational State Transfer). REST communicates by exposing items as resources so you’d create an order by giving another program your desired order or process a payment by giving it your desired payment. While they are both doing the same thing, one does it by exposing communication as actions all with different parameters (SOAP) and the other does it by having items exposed as resources that are used for requests and responses (REST). The difference to programmers can be massive. An analogy would be like a student asking 15 simple math questions and a teacher answering them (SOAP) versus a teacher handing a student a calculator (REST).
Why are we moving towards REST?
From a technology standpoint, there are many large benefits to ByDesign as well as those that communicate with us via APIs. REST allows us to communicate using multiple formats easily (meaning other programmers can communicate easier). It’s easily cacheable meaning less work for all systems involved. While the list of benefits goes on, simply know that REST is optimized for the web and it’s the right move as far as how programs prefer to communicate to one another.
How do we use REST?
Our newest Shopping Cart and mobile apps are running on top of REST APIs. Every time you click a button, add an item to the cart, or view a product you’re using a REST API! This gives us the ability to cache information for faster loading of the main cart pages. It allows us to pass less information less frequently in order to get the user their cart total. It means many improvements! While we are only using REST APIs in our newest shopping cart and mobile apps, we’re going to be using them more and more throughout the system. This will bring the many benefits with it into those other systems. We look forward to using these to empower you and your users.