Web APIs Meeting
AKA: Like 90% of modern software development
Friday, October 15, 2021 · 4 - 6 PM
Hi all,
Following up on a member suggestion from last week, today we'll be discussing server-side Web APIs and how you can make use of them.
What is a Web API, in simplified form? Basically, you know how you, as a human operator, can open a web browser and, say, log into Twitter or Discord and send a message; or open a weather website and check the weather? Web APIs are a service provided by many websites which allows a program to do those actions, and send or retrieve data in a computer-readable way (usually JSON or, less commonly, XML). So you could have a script send a tweet or a Discord message (this is how bots work), or check the weather for you (this is how the weather app on your phone works).
The most common form of Web API today is probably REST + JSON, but SOAP (XML) is also a thing, and we'll briefly mention some modern goodies like GraphQL.
Web APIs are ubiquitous and there's a decent argument to be made that a huge proportion of modern software development at least comes into contact with them in some fashion. They're great! There will again be a workshop sort of portion, so we encourage you to bring your laptops!
Note that we'll specifically be discussing server-side Web APIs, which is honestly what most people mean by the generic term "API" nowadays. Client-side Web APIs are also a thing, mostly consisting of various Javascript functionality, and "API" itself is an incredibly broad term, which we'll discuss briefly.
The meeting will, as always, be hybrid, meaning you can either attend in-person or virtually. If you're comfortable with
in-person, come to ILSB237 at 4PM. If you prefer to meet virtually, join the Jitsi room at 4PM: https://meet.jit.si/SADClubFall2021Hybrid
If you have any questions at all, feel free to email nbura1@umbc.edu or put a message in the Discord. Hope to see you all there!