In 2019 the number of apps available for download in leading app stores reached the mark of 1.96 million in Apple’s App Store and 2.46 million in Google Play Store. As the market matures, the number of Android and iOS apps reached its peak in March 2018. However, the numbers declined since then. It is because of the rise of web applications in place of native apps.
In light of the evolving landscape of online business services, companies thinking to build web apps and web-based applications using Web APIs in the category of eCommerce, entertainment, social networking, and shopping.
Rise of Web APIs
Today businesses are looking to add more dynamic systems to their apps. And, web APIs (Application Programming Interface) has increased its importance in building dynamic enterprise-grade applications.
It is also important to choose the right web API that addresses the need of your business model and the need for your application development or program. Hire API developers for support on your ongoing web application development project as they can help fulfill your requirements.
You should also know that one of the biggest challenges of building an app with API is choosing the one that will last.
Classification of Web APIs
- There are thousands of Public Web APIs that can be used in your app to do everything from weather forecasting to traffic monitoring, to make your bill payments, etc.
- Likewise, there are thousands of Private Web APIs that can’t be consumed by the general public, rather, they are used by companies to extend their application capabilities.
- Composite web APIs are used to speed up the process of data execution and to improve the performance of your web application by minimizing the number of data sharing round-trips between the client and the server. Leverage the dynamism of modern web APIs for web app development that also benefits your business.
Web API Protocols/Specifications
There are types of Web Service APIs such as Representational State Transfer (REST), Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), and Remote Procedure Call (RPC).
The web service API is a system that uses an address or URL to provide access to a service or web application. Let’s discuss this in detail.
1. REST Web APIs (Representational State Transfer)
REST (Representational State Transfer) a web API that stands in for the production of enterprise-grade web applications. This API uses the HTTP standard to work with resources like CONNECT, TRACE, HEAD, POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, AND DELETE.
Also Read: Top 10 Web Application Development Trends To Look
What is it good for?
Rest API gives you the ability to grow your web development by reusing components without affecting the process as a whole. In short, it aims for fast performance, reliability, and ease of use. Brands like Expedia and Twitter are using RESTful web API to improve their app performance even more. With the ability to support different formats such as XML, HTML, YAML, and JSON, REST has become a prevailing choice for building custom web applications these days.
Key Benefits of REST Web Api:
- It requires minimum bandwidth to build apps
- It is driven by data, not functions
- It has easy guidelines to follow that allow developers to build applications easily
- Works on JSON that supports only text and numbers
- REST web APIs are optimized for the web apps
- Uses a single uniform interface
2. SOAP Web APIs (Service Object Access Protocol)
Eventually, every web application will need a SOAP web api (Service Object Access Protocol) to ensure the security of transmitted data of your app. SOAP works in a decentralized distributed environment to maintain the communication between request and response messages sent by web applications.
SOAP web api support XML format that is a very flexible text format used to exchange information over the internet or other web networks. XML defines a set of rules for the security of documents for both humans and machines.
What is it good for?
SOAP web APIs are suitable for building payment gateway apps, CRM solutions, identity management as well as telecommunication services. PayPal is using SOAP APIs. Amazon is also using SOAP and REST APIs to expand data storage on professional web applications. Similarly, SalesForce API using SOAP web APIs to implement custom features to pre-build web applications.
Key Benefits of SOAP Web API:
- SOAP web APIs are driven by functions
- Adds more security to web applications
- It has strict rules to follow for developers
- Works on XML that support various images, graphs, charts, numbers, texts, etc.
If you’re also looking to build your next business valued web app on SOAP Apis, build a comprehensive range of API customization services with the help of Api developers. Hire them to make your application better in performance, reliability, and scalability.
Also Check: Top 10 eCommerce web development companies for Startups
3. RPC Web APIs (Remote Procedure Call)
RPC web APIs are the simplest form of the APIs listed here. These APIs works on the principles of Remote Procedure Call that specifies the interaction between client-server based applications. RPC web APIs are also known as the “function call” or “subroutine” in which one program or client requests for data from the server and the server sends the required response to the client.
In short, RPC web APIs is about sending a message that might end up storing information in the database to keep a history.
Key Benefits of RPC Web API:
- RPC web APIs are great for adding commands and procedures
- A great option for making CRUD (create, read, update, delete) to your app data
- In RPC only GET (for getting the information) and POST for modifying information are used
- Support both data types JSON and XML
Final Words
If you think that you need to pick one web API and only need to have only one API, it is a bit of falsehood. Your web application could very easily work on multiple web APIs or additional services.
However, you have to make a choice between the rules of REST, SOAP, or RPC and then you would have one web api for your web application development project. Get help from Indian programmers that are just focused on delivering excellent development services and also fulfill your app maintenance needs.
Knowing about the web APIs can be incredibly useful when you are planning to work on a new project of web app development. It can be also helpful when you are working on the features for your existing web APIs.
It’s nothing like best and you cannot mix all the styles in a single web API. This can be confusing for you too, so you can use REST, RPC or SOAP that makes sense. Or you can use all of them or only two to have the best features on your web application.
We hope you have learned something useful about web APIs and which one is right for a particular project. If you have any questions, feel free to post in the below-given comment section.
We at ValueCoders (a known Software Outsourcing Company in India ) work on building web APIs as per our client’s requirements. Being the leader in the API development niche, we always try to deliver truly innovative web app development solutions that can solve your business issues by simplifying your needs.
ValueCoders is a known name in the Indian software development industry focused on delivering offshore software development services. With 18+ years of experience, 2,500 satisfied customers, 97% client retention rate, and 4,200+ projects, we have worked with many startups, software product development companies, digital agencies, and enterprises and helped them by simplifying their web application development needs at less cost and time.
ValueCoders means peace of mind that gives you full control over your projects and you also have the flexibility like your in-house web application development team.
