Acronyms Are Hard: API

Acronyms can be hard to figure out. If you want proof, look no further than our Acronyms Are Hard Series! When jumping between a few different industries, these seemingly harmless terms can lead to confusion, mass hysteria, or worse: potential problems with the end result.

Generally speaking, we do our best to define acronyms—if we even use them at all—in order to make sure that we don’t cause communications issues. After we’ve been working on a project for a while, all the appropriate acronyms will be pinned at the top of the projects and/or burned into our minds so we’ll never forget them. That is… until the next project comes around and we need to re-learn all new acronyms because some companies use different terminologies.

The more we discuss programming and integrations with various platforms, the more we get talking about APIs. We'll do our best to define API, and then tell you how it's used in a way that non-programmers will understand.

API

API stands for Application Programming Interface. An API is used when we’re trying to interface between multiple programs. It is a set of subroutine definitions, communication protocols, and tools for building programs.

So, what does this mean for non-programmers? If you're using an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system, and you want to interface with a software platform (Google Drive is a common example) we will want to be able to push information from a form into the ERP. Sounds simple, right? But, if you've learned anything from this blog, you know that nothing is simple! How do we get the information out of a Google form? Hopefully through an API. We say “hopefully” because Google's API is created by Google. The access they give everyone is based on what Google wants and/or the way the wind is blowing.

(Here's an example of Google changing their Maps API and the developers losing their mind.)

A Super Basic Definition of API…

An API is an Application Programming Interface. It's used for connecting and pushing/pulling information from one program to another. We do a lot of work with API's and could put together more in-depth information and tutorials if you're interested. What else do you want to see?

Updated - 6/15/2022