gRPC is becoming increasingly popular, and for a good reason. It’s incredibly fast, for one thing, clocking in at up to 12x the speed of REST APIs. It’s also great for microservice environments and streaming data. In case you’re not yet familiar with gRPC, it stands for Google Remote Procedure Call. Think of a remote procedure call (RPC) as a function that can be invoked on a separate system. The Google-developed approach to remote procedure calls is quite a robust solution with significant backing in the industry. That being said, gRPC is relatively newer compared to something like REST or SO ..read more

CLIs and APIs are like peanut butter and jelly — beloved by their respective fans but better together. But what is a CLI? And what, really, is an API? Today, we’re going to look at this question. We’ll provide a top-level breakdown of APIs and CLIs, and point to their use cases in the modern web space. What is a CLI? CLIs, or Command Line Interfaces, are textual interfaces that allow a user to execute a command, manipulate data, and interface with a system. The CLI removes the need for a GUI, or Graphical User Interface, presenting a solution that’s low on resource demand and high on user cont ..read more

When evaluating a new product or service, it doesn’t take much to make a developer abandon ship and look elsewhere. They don’t want to spend an hour installing libraries and dependencies — that’s a textbook definition of a bad developer experience. Instead, they want to give the tool a quick spin and see how it fits into their existing stack and workflow. This is where SDKs come in. SDKs, or Software Development Kits, give developers everything they need to try out a new tool like an API in one place. Despite their popularity and usefulness, there’s been a lack of centralized standards and bes ..read more

REST and gRPC are nearly ubiquitous at this point. Often presented as two competing offerings, they are actually two very different modalities. Understanding their benefits and drawbacks is crucial to any developer beginning their journey in this space. Today, we’ll briefly examine the two options and define some general advantages and disadvantages of each. What is REST? REST, or Representational State Transfer, is a set of architectural constraints created by Roy Fielding to define data interaction and manipulation. In this paradigm, data interaction and manipulation are stateless, meaning t ..read more

Recent reports of automotive hacks have demonstrated a growing need for better API security. Hackers have been able to exploit security vulnerabilities in connected cars to steal data and even control vehicle systems without the owner’s knowledge or permission. And recently, new vulnerabilities have been discovered across many major automobile brands. These API attacks are not only a safety concern but also pose a serious financial risk to automakers, car owners, and insurance companies. To protect against these threats, it is important to ensure that APIs used to access vehicle systems are se ..read more

We compare some web APIs that add weather data to your app. If your application has anything to do with leaving the house, there’s a good chance that weather data is one piece of the development puzzle. While there are quite a few choices out there for weather APIs, it’s difficult to find the features you need at a price that works for you… even if that price is zero! As a result, we’ve compiled a list of the web’s best weather APIs — some free and some paid — to use in your application. 1. OpenWeatherMap API OpenWeatherMap is one of the most popular choices for accessing high volumes of ..read more

Google Maps API is a popular, powerful tool for creating custom maps that are also searchable, displaying live location data, planning routes, or syncing up with other APIs. It’s little wonder the Google Maps API is regularly one of the most popular APIs on API directories like RapidAPI. The Google Maps API is also a good API to practice programming with. It’s easy to work with. It’s useful and versatile. And it’s free, provided you don’t go over your quota. With that in mind, we’ll show you how to build a custom map project using the Google Maps JavaScript API. By the time you’re done, you’ll ..read more

Part of the difficulty of introducing any new technology is communicating how it works. Webhooks are one such technology. And while webhooks are a vital component for many implementations, they require their own approach to documentation. Below, we’ll look at some strategies for documenting webhooks effectively, so that developers understand the underlying framework and nuances of the implementation. 1. Understand the Caveats of the Paradigm First, developers should remember that webhooks are a unique communication paradigm. A webhook is, in essence, an event-driven callback function. This dif ..read more

Payroll management is an essential aspect of any business operation, no matter its size. However, managing payroll can be complex, time-consuming, and prone to errors. This is where payroll management APIs come in handy. Payroll management APIs allow developers to integrate payroll processing capabilities into their applications, creating a comprehensive solution for managing employee salaries, taxes, and benefits. These APIs automate payroll processing tasks, minimize errors, and ensure compliance with regulations and laws related to payroll and taxes. In this article, we will explore the top ..read more

API breaches are a major security problem. According to a recent survey, 41% of organizations have experienced an API security incident in the last year. A different survey reports that API security incidents increased by 681% in a single year. API breaches can have disastrous consequences. In some cases, they can expose millions of sensitive user records. An API hack can result in a fatal loss of trust between developers and users. They can also cause severe financial repercussions. With that in mind, we’ve assembled a list of eight of the most significant API breaches of the last two years t ..read more