API development with Node.js

An API is an acronym which stands for “Application Programming Interface”. An API that uses HTTP requests to GET, PUT, POST, DELETE, PATCH data is called as restful API, where rest means representational state transfer. Rest technology is considered more robust to SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol) technology, because rest is comparatively fast, more reliable and uses less bandwidth.

REST is useful in cloud based apps because it is stateless.

So, a restful technology is an Impeccable development of NodeJS & MongoDB RESTful APIs that will assist you in communicating and transferring data efficiently.

About HTTP – Protocol and HTTP methods.

HTTP is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol while HTTPS is for Hypertext Transfer protocol secure. The major difference is that HTTPs transmits its data securely using an encrypted connection in which the public key is decrypted on the recipient side. The public key used for securing our data is deployed on the server side, and it included in what we know as an SSL certificate.

What is the use of APIs.

They are mere HTTP/HTTPs calls just like how a web page is delivered to your browser. Your browser asks the server for a page, and the server delivers it.

In the case of a Web API, it’s just a program on a server which delivers response data in a format like JSON or XML(rest or soap), which further gets presented in a predefined UI on any web or mobile application (or web page).

Types of API Status Code.

Status Code	Meaning
200	Status: OK. Meaning: This means request went fine and expected response was returned. Used With: GET requests.
201	Status: Created. Meaning: The resource was successfully created and the server has acknowledged it. Additionally, the new resource might also be returned as part of the response body by the server. Used With: This is used with POST or PUT requests.
204	Status: No content. Meaning: The action was successful. Content Returned was null. Used With: Actions that do not require a response body, such as a DELETE action.
301	Status: Moved permanently. Meaning: This resource was moved to another location. It returns the location This header is especially useful when URLs change over time (maybe due to a change on version, a migration, or some other disruptive change). Returning a redirection and keeping the old ones is to allow old clients to update their references in their own time.
400	Status: Bad request. Meaning: The request issued has problems (might be lacking some required parameters, for example). It helps develops to understand if there was a problem with request query and also at the same time help developers creating response that tells request query had some issues. This description is response helps developer to fix their request call.
401	Status: Unauthorized. Meaning: Especially useful for authentication when the requested resource is not accessible to the user owning the request.
403	Status: Forbidden. The resource is not accessible. Meaning: But unlike 401, authentication will not affect the response.
404	Status: Not found. Meaning: The URL provided does not identify any resource and in response api can respond with a set of valid URLs that the client can use to get back on track (root URL, previous URL used, etc.).
405	Status: Method not allowed. Meaning: The HTTP verb used on a resource is not allowed. For example making a PUT request on a resource which is read-only.
500	Status: Internal server error. Meaning: A generic error code when an unexpected condition is met and the server crashes. It responds with an error message about about what went wrong.

REST vs SOAP difference.

XML-RCP/SOAP	REST
Specific SOAP clients has to be created for every programming language. Even though XML was universal, but still a new client would have to be coded to parse the WSDL to understand how the service worked.	REST doesn’t require special clients, only a programming language capable of connectivity through the chosen protocol (e.g., HTTP, FTP, etc.).
The client needs to know everything about the service before initiating the interaction (thus the WSDL mentioned earlier).	The client only needs to know the main root endpoint, and with the hypermedia provided on the response, self-discovery is possible.
Because the service was used from within the client source code and called a specific function or method from within the server’s code, the coupling between those two systems was too big. A rewrite of the server code would probably lead to a rewrite on the client’s code.	The interface is implementation independent; the complete server-side code can be rewritten and the API’s interface will not have to be changed.

Usage of REST

REST is an architectural style defined to help create and organize distributed systems. The key word from that definition should be style, because an important aspect of REST is that it is an architectural style—neither a guideline nor a standard, or anything like set of hard rules to follow in order to end up having a RESTful architecture.

REST is majorly for a distributed system which when organized RESTfully, will improve in performance, portability, reliability, simplicity, scalability of any component interaction.

These restful services are used almost in every kind of data-user interaction that happens over the internet. Sending secured and instant data is the requirement of almost every system. Our software development team excels in API Development based on the requirements of the system. We try to closely understand the functioning of the system, their data-exchange requirements and then build required APIs for them. We have good experience in creating secure and fast APIs.