From the course: Programming Foundations: APIs and Web Services

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Web services, APIs, and microservices

Web services, APIs, and microservices

From the course: Programming Foundations: APIs and Web Services

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Web services, APIs, and microservices

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- RESTful APIs and web services are often confused with each other. APIs are the communication and data sharing mechanism between two different applications or systems. This sounds just like a web service, doesn't it? APIs are a natural evolution of web services. Both facilitate information sharing but APIs are more dynamic. Web services evolved in the early 90s, but the complexities with SOAP-based web services led to REST-based APIs. So, think of it like this. All German Shepherds are dogs, but not all dogs are German Shepherds. In a similar way, all web services are APIs, but not all APIs are web services. A web service is a fat German Shepherd. An API is a skinny German Shepherd. The skinny German Shepherd is more lightweight, streamlined, quick, and nimble. While the fat German Shepherd has a lot of overhead and is carrying around a lot of extra baggage. APIs typically have a more lightweight architecture and…

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