Today’s post expands on the rare confluence of events discussed in The Cloud: How Cloud Computing Changes Everything. However, finding out why and how the websites, apps, and software we create are changing so fast and so much can be a fool’s errand. For example, did the decentralized nature of cloud computing influence how we code or vice versa? At this point, knowing what came first is a distinction without an appreciable difference.
APIs are everywhere. Have you ever used /activate to make apps work on your television? Thanks to the over-the-top (OTT) standards where everyone from Netflix to your cable provider uses agreed-upon standards universally to make your new Disney Plus subscription work. Data consumption is huge and growing daily. We use APPS and Websites engage with, add to, and consume data thanks to APIs used by the websites we vist and the apps we use. Learning about application program interfaces (APIs) and why there is one in your website’s future will make you more money next year.
When we look behind the web design, software development, app creation, and API curtain, here is what we see:
API What is an API? Learn about inbound and outbound APIs.
How Do APIs Work Get the skinny on how we code APIs.
API Integrations Learn why the web and your website will be awash in APIs if they aren’t already.
Cloudy Tools APIs in Martech APIs are important to your digital marketing technology stacks, sometimes called “martech."
APIs for More Profits Next Year Discover three ways to use this information to make more money next year.
Did you check the weather on your phone, pad, or computer this morning? If you knew it was going to rain, snow, or be hot today, it’s because the weather app on your device used definitions and protocols to “talk” to The Weather Channel (or wherever) to let you know coats beat sweaters today if so, you used an API today.
All software and apps have distinct functions. When your software talks to mine, the conversation or interface must follow a contract of service that both parties know about, agree with, and can use. This contract defines how your software interfaces with mine via requests and responses. API documentation describes how developers structure requests and responses when connecting to Salesforce, Hubspot, or Marketo.
Just as conversations have speakers and listeners, APIs have clients and servers. Applications making requests are clients, and the applications sending a response are the server. For example, when asking for today’s weather, your phone is the client requesting information from the weather service’s database, so the Weather Channel is the server. We create four kinds of APIs depending on when and why we wrote them:
SOAP APIs Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP because tech geeks never pass up the chance for a funny abbreviation) uses eXtensible Markup Language or XML for client and server messaging. We haven’t created many SOAP APIs lately because they are less flexible.
RPC APIs We write a lot of RPC APIs because they are the most popular and flexible application program interfaces out there. Clients complete or run a function or procedure, and the server sends the output back to the client.
Websocket APIs When JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is used to pass data, you create a WebSocket API. We use websocket APIs to develop two-way communication between clients and servers. We like websocket APIs because they can send client callback messages, so communication is more efficient than Rest APIs.
REST APIs When a client sends requests to the server as data, and that data starts internal functions to output data back to the client, you’re using the most flexible and popular APIs on the web – Representational State Transfer or a REST API. GET, PUT, DELETE, and other functions are defined so clients can exchange data via secure hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP). REST APIs don’t save client data between requests, and responses are plain data absent in the graphical rendering of a webpage, something called statelessness.
To help the adoption of RESTful API’s, the OPEN API Initiative was formed. Now referred to as OAS 3.0 - the OpenAPI Specification is setting the structure, format and defines a template. As developers, we set what values we want to use and how to deploy it.
Web APIs establishes a processing interface between a web server and a browser. While all web services are APIs, not all APIs are web services. For example, creating headless content management systems (CMS) is one of our most common web APIs.
A cloud-based headless CMS stores and manages data without delivery assumptions. A headless CMS doesn’t care what you want to do or how you want your content displayed because functionality and appearance are the jobs of a “display platform” such as your website or mobile app. APIs connect backend systems such as headless CMSes to front-end systems such as websites and mobile apps.
We use code and logic to create automatic updates between clients and servers to create sophisticated API integrations. So, when the picture you just took with your smartphone syncs a copy to the cloud, your API is integrated and follows logic and business rules, your app’s developers, or some combination of the two crafts.
Starting to understand why the API world is enormous? We know over 5,000 well-documented APIs for products, including Zoom, Google Drive, Discord, Slack, Office365, Facebook, Instagram, Hubspot, Marketo, LinkedIn, and Salesforce.
When we need quick automation, we use Zapier’s no-code connections to SalesForce, Facebook, Slack Teams, and other applications. The problem is scale, so we usually project when we’ll need to code a scalable microservice to replace the quick hit we gain by using Zapier.
We’ve started using and like the cloud-native distributed architecture from Boomi. Boomi’s single instance multi-tenant platform, meaning a single instance of our software can serve multiple customers, eliminates API integration costs and complexity. At the same time, we benefit from the latest feature and functionality upgrades.
Have you noticed how traditionally right brain marketers are learning more left-brain tech logic? These digital first future days mean lines between marketers and techies may be yet another distinction without a difference. As we noted on our Content Marketing services pages developing a testing culture is an online marketing must. Here are few examples of a of the marketing tech we’ve APIed into or created microservices to support:
SalesForce & Pardot Customer Relationship Management & Marketing Automation.
Marketo Marketing Automation.
Twilio Customer engagement platform and magical SMS tool.
Hubspot Content marketing, sales, and customer service platform.
Tableau Business intelligence (BI), marketing automation analytics.
Google Analytics The best if somewhat complicated free web analytics tool.
Optimizely Best A/B testing tool.
Google Optimize Best multivariant testing tool.
Kissmetrics Easier to use but not free web analytics tool.
LinkedIn B2B social network.
It would be best if you added at least one API today to increase your profits next year. If your sell online services, I recommend marketing automation with SalesForce and Pardot or Marketo combined with big data and ai to mine LinkedIn or discover new partners. Those tools hold promise for B2C ecommerce merchants too.
Knowing what API will create a rising tide sure to lift your company's profits next year is impossible sitting on this side of my blog post. The WTE team and I need to find out what APIs you're missing or ones that are sure to make an immediate impact before making anything other than broad recommendations. The best way to discover how APIs can make you more money next year is to call or email me.
Thanks,
Eric
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Eric Garrison, CEO
1 (866) 994-7467
E: eg (at) WTE.net