So now that my system is up and running I realize that I need to leverage some additional software solutions with my ERP system in order to truly get the biggest bang for my buck. Luckily for me, I know that I have a set of application programming interfaces, or API's, that allow me to connect everything seamlessly. API's are sets of routines, protocols, and/or tools that allow for building software applications. An API allows users to express a software component in terms of their operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types.
Application Programming Interfaces set the standards by which ERP software can "talk to" other web-based software applications. Software companies release their API's to the public so that other software developers can design products that are powered by its underlying service. In simpler terms, software providers may expose their API's so that their clients can "grab" inherent data, like the price of a product, and expose it to applications that they may have developed, like their external website.
An API is a software-to-software interface, not a user interface. With API's, applications talk to each other without any need for user knowledge or intervention. Think of buying a movie ticket online and entering your credit card information. The movie ticket web site uses an API to send your credit card information to a remote application that verifies whether your information is correct. Once your payment is confirmed, the remote application sends a response back to the movie ticket web site saying it's OK to issue the tickets. As a user, you only see one interface - the movie ticket web site, but behind the scenes, many applications work together using API's. This is a "seamless" type of integration since the user never notices when software functions are handed from one application to another.
Most developers insist that an API resembles Software as a Service, or SaaS, since they don't have to start from scratch every time to write a program. Instead they program the same application to reach out to other applications that handle a process better than if they tried to build everything into one core application. Companies that expose their API often, do so as part of a larger software development kit (SDK), which may include the API, various programming tools and/or other instructional documents to make the developer's job easier.
API's and web services remain completely invisible to users surfing the web, as well as other software users. API's run silently in the background, while providing a way for applications to work with each other to get the user the information or functionality they need. Be careful! Just because an API is available now doesn't mean it always will be. Companies can shut down services and APIs that your applications depend on - or they can go out of business entirely, thereby leaving you in the lurch as to how to fix your applications.
Take heed. When utilizing a software's API's, try to make sure that they are a reputable organization with an outlook of sustained growth in their industry, so that you don't erroneously end up building a house of cards for your users.
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