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Some of the available APIs

Email Validation: Parse and validate email addresses.
Currency Exchange and Forex: Access real-time and reliable currency exchange rates.
Google Sheets: Read, write, and format data in Google Sheets.
Holidays: Retrieve dates of holidays for different countries, states, and regions.
IBAN Validation: Validate and check IBAN codes.
PDF Invoice Generator: Generate PDF invoices.
IP Geolocation: Get the location, city, and country of an IPv4 or IPv6 address.
OpenGraph Image Generation: Create beautiful OpenGraph images.
Phone Validation: Parse and validate phone numbers.
Web Scraping: Convert websites into structured and usable data.
Website Screenshot: Transform any URL into an image.
Sentiment Analysis: Perform sentiment analysis on text.
VAT Number Validation: Simplify VAT number verification for accurate business transactions.

What is an API?

An application programming interface or API is a connection between computer programs. The term API is an acronym, and it stands for “Application Programming Interface.

API is a software interface or contract which offers a service to other parts of software. APIs usually come with a documnetation which describes how an API can be used, this document is called API specification.

How do APIs work?

APIs let services communicate with other services and apps without having to know how they are implemented in detail. This can help you simplify the app development. When you are developing apps or redesigning existing platforms, APIs give you flexibility and help you simplify the design and provide better user experience.

APIs can be implemented using different standards, some of established standards are:

REST API
SOAP API
GraphQL
RPC

What is an API request?

APIs, or Application Programming Interfaces, serve as the digital bridges that allow different software systems to communicate and collaborate

API Request

An application programming interface or API is a connection between computer programs. An API request (Application Programming Interface request) is a communication made by one software application to another, typically over a network, to request specific data or perform a particular action. APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are sets of rules and protocols that allow different software systems to interact with each other.

How It Works

Client Application: The client application, often referred to as the "consumer" of the API, initiates the request. This client application could be a web application, mobile app, server, or any software that needs to interact with another service.
API Endpoint: The client specifies the API endpoint it wants to access. An API endpoint is a specific URL or URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) that corresponds to a particular resource or functionality provided by the API. For example, a weather API might have endpoints like /weather to get current weather data or /forecast to get a weather forecast.
HTTP Method: The client also specifies the HTTP method to be used for the request. Common HTTP methods include GET (retrieve data), POST (create new data), PUT (update data), and DELETE (remove data). The choice of method depends on the API's design and what the client intends to do.
Request Headers: The client can include additional information in the form of request headers. These headers might contain authentication tokens, content types, or other metadata required by the API to process the request.
Request Parameters: If the API endpoint requires specific data to be passed, the client can include request parameters or data in the request body. These parameters are typically sent as key-value pairs and provide context to the API server.
API Server: The API server, which is responsible for processing API requests, receives the request. It validates the request, checks authentication if required, processes the parameters, and performs the requested action or retrieves the requested data.
Response: After processing the request, the API server sends back a response to the client. This response includes an HTTP status code indicating the outcome of the request (e.g., 200 OK for success or 404 Not Found for failure) and any data or information requested by the client.
Client Handling: The client application receives the response, parses it, and takes appropriate action based on the data and status code. This might involve displaying data to the user, storing it locally, or making further API requests.

Python Code Example

Here's a Python code example demonstrating how to make a simple API request using the requests library:

import requests

# Define the API endpoint URL
api_url = "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>"

# Send a GET request to the API endpoint
response = requests.get(api_url)

# Check if the request was successful (status code 200)
if response.status_code == 200:
    # Parse and print the response data (assumes the response contains JSON)
    data = response.json()
    print("API Response:")
    print(data)
else:
    print("API Request Failed with Status Code:", response.status_code)

How to make RESTful API calls?

A Comprehensive Guide to Making RESTful API Calls in Multiple Languages

Introduction

In the world of web development, communicating with external services and fetching data from APIs is a common task. RESTful APIs have become the standard for building and consuming web services due to their simplicity and scalability.

In this guide, we will explore how to make RESTful API calls in popular programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go and C#. We'll provide code examples in each language to help you get started.

Python

Python is a versatile language known for its simplicity and readability. To make RESTful API calls in Python, you can use the requests library.

import requests

url = "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>"
response = requests.get(url)

if response.status_code == 200:
    data = response.json()
    print(data)
else:
    print('Currency Exchange API request failed.')

In this example, we use the requests.get() method to send a GET request to the Currency Exchange API endpoint.

If the response status code is 200 (OK), we parse the JSON response. You can also include headers and parameters in your requests if needed.

JavaScript (Node.js)

Node.js allows you to run JavaScript on the server-side. To make RESTful API calls in JavaScript, you can use the axios library, which is known for its simplicity and flexibility.

const axios = require('axios');

const url = "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>";

axios.get(url)
  .then((response) => {
    console.log(response.data);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error('API request failed:', error);
  });

Here, we use axios.get() to send a GET request and handle the response and errors using Promises.

TypeScript

TypeScript is a statically typed superset of JavaScript, and it's becoming increasingly popular for building scalable applications. Making RESTful API calls in TypeScript is similar to JavaScript, with the added benefit of type checking.

import axios from 'axios';

const url = "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>";

axios.get(url)
  .then((response) => {
    console.log(response.data);
  })
  .catch((error) => {
    console.error('API request failed:', error);
  });

The TypeScript code is almost identical to JavaScript, but it provides better type safety and code intelligence.

Go

Go, also known as Golang, is a statically typed language known for its efficiency and performance. To make RESTful API calls in Go, you can use the built-in net/http package.

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io/ioutil"
	"net/http"
)

func main() {
    url := "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>";

	response, err := http.Get(url)
	if err != nil {
		fmt.Println("API request failed:", err)
		return
	}
	defer response.Body.Close()

	if response.StatusCode == 200 {
		body, _ := ioutil.ReadAll(response.Body)
		fmt.Println(string(body))
	} else {
		fmt.Println("API request failed. Status code:", response.StatusCode)
	}
}

In Go, we use the http.Get() function to send a GET request, and we read the response body and handle errors accordingly.

Bash

Bash is a powerful shell scripting language commonly used in Unix-like operating systems. While it's not typically associated with web development, you can still make RESTful API calls using tools like curl. Here's a simple example of making an API GET request in Bash:

#!/bin/bash

# Define the API endpoint
api_url="https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>";

# Make a GET request using curl
response=$(curl -s "$api_url")

# Print the response
echo "$response"

In this script:

We specify the API endpoint in the api_url variable.
We use curl -s to make a GET request to the API and store the response in the response variable.
Finally, we echo the response to the console.

PHP

PHP is a widely-used server-side scripting language known for its web development capabilities. You can use the curl library in PHP to interact with RESTful APIs. Here's an example:

<?php

// Define the Currency Exchange API endpoint
$api_url = "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>";

// Initialize cURL session
$ch = curl_init();

// Set cURL options
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $api_url);
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);

// Execute the request and store the response
$response = curl_exec($ch);

// Close cURL session
curl_close($ch);

// Print the response
echo $response;

In this PHP script:

We set the API endpoint in the $api_url variable.
We initialize a cURL session using curl_init() and set options for the request.
We execute the request with curl_exec() and store the response.
Finally, we print the response to the output.

C#

C# is a versatile programming language often used for building Windows and ASP.NET Core applications. You can use the HttpClient class to make RESTful API calls in C#. Here's a C# example:

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

class Program
{
    static async Task Main()
    {
        // Define the API endpoint
        string api_url = "https://anyapi.io/api/v1/exchange/convert?apiKey=<YOUR_API_KEY>";

        // Create an HttpClient instance
        using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
        {
            // Make a GET request and get the response
            HttpResponseMessage response = await client.GetAsync(api_url);

            // Ensure a successful response
            if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
            {
                // Read the response content as a string
                string data = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

                // Print the response
                Console.WriteLine(data);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine("API request failed. Status code: " + response.StatusCode);
            }
        }
    }
}

In this C# example:

We define the API endpoint in the api_url variable.
We create an instance of the HttpClient class to send HTTP requests.
We make a GET request using client.GetAsync() and handle the response accordingly.