The general concept of a web API (application programming interface) has two main interpretations. It is used to refer to both a server-side API upon a web server as well as client-side API within a web browser.
Server-side [edit]
A server-side web API is a programmatic interface to a defined request-response message system, typically expressed in JSON or XML, which is exposed via the web—most commonly by means of an HTTP-based web server. Mashups are web applications which combine the use of multiple such web APIs.[1]
While "web API" in this context is sometimes considered a synonym for web service, Web 2.0 web applications have moved away from a service-oriented architecture (SOA) with SOAP-based web services towards more cohesive collections of RESTful web resources.[2] These RESTful web APIs are accessible via standard HTTP methods by a variety of HTTP clients including browsers and mobile devices.
Client-side [edit]
There are a number of client-side web APIs that have been developed (mostly targeting standardized JavaScript bindings to functionality within a web browser).
The Mozilla Foundation created their WebAPI specification which is designed to help replace native mobile applications with HTML5 applications.[3][4]
See also [edit]
References [edit]
Further reading [edit]
