Have you ever thought about building an API?

If you ever considered building websites or been a part of mobile app development services, you must have realized the importance of APIs in the app and web development process. APIs connect and transfer data between two or more applications, web pages, third-party features or enterprise systems, helping servers and hosts receive data respectively and according to their needs.

They perform a crucial task necessary for organizations to grow their profits swiftly than ever before. APIs are also an answer to big companies investing billions of dollars in uniting disparate systems. Similarly, the Web's inception helped recognize the Internet's true potential, just like that APIs will drive the new phase of innovation in sharing network and services.

Do you prefer using REST to build an API?

REST is short for Representational State Transfer, is a designated set of architectural rules; it cannot be perceived as a standard or a protocol. They characterize how API looks. API developers have found several ways to achieve an architectural style to develop applications to access the network.

Upon calling a RESTful API, the server assigns the representation of the resource's state over to the client.

The URL through it asks for data is called a request, and the data received is called a response.

REST utilizes a human-readable JSON format; it is lightweight than XML, easier to analyze syntactically, and performs well besides all programming languages.

API requiring to function with both JSON and XML (e.g., legacy systems) can switch output according to request headers' inquired format.

Have you heard about GraphQL?

Facebook built GraphQL in 2012 and made it open-source in 2015, built as an alternative to RESTful APIs, receiving more data than required, involving higher API calls. Since each node can return just the designated data, developers designed modes holding the front-end schemes in mind.

GraphQL helps clients to communicate and transfer data directly to servers. It first has to define the data it wants explicitly, fundamentally differing from REST.

Sourcing and aggregating data through multiple sources are more manageable than the traditional approach. Alternatively, rather than having numerous endpoints or nodes, you possess an intuitive node, collecting complicated, complex inquiries and presenting the product as per the client requirements.

Which one is the best?

The narrative is exceptionally individual, plus it depends on a multitude of circumstances.

If you're building an API for explicitly being used on a mobile application, practice GraphQL to contribute more abundant bandwidth usage.

If you are willing to build an API to utilize caching and monitoring abilities, apply REST.

Nevertheless, you can also combine GraphQL and REST for a hi-end structural design, according to the data and execution conditions. To get things clear, contact us here at SVAP, and we would relish to fix up a process meeting.