When working with APIs in Python, there are several important concepts to understand. Here are some key concepts:
API (Application Programming Interface): An API is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. APIs define how different components should interact and exchange data.
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol): APIs are commonly built using HTTP, which is a protocol for transferring data over the web. Understanding HTTP methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) and status codes (200, 404, etc.) is crucial for interacting with APIs.
Request: In Python, you can send HTTP requests to APIs using libraries like requests
. Requests include the request method (GET, POST, etc.), headers, URL parameters, query parameters, and sometimes request body data.
Response: API requests return responses that contain data from the server. Responses include status codes, headers, and response body data. The response body is often in formats like JSON, XML, or HTML.
JSON (JavaScript Object Notation): JSON is a popular data format used by many APIs to exchange structured data. Python provides libraries like json
to parse JSON responses into Python objects and serialize Python objects into JSON.