When you interact with a REST API, are you making calls directly or are you using a client from the API provider? Many APIs now provide clients, wrappers, or SDKs. These terms all mean the same thing in this context. What happens if the API you are using doesn't offer a client? Do you even need one? Is there any benefit? In this article, we will explore some of the reasons you may want to build one.
GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a set of tools that enable sending and processing queries. While originally developed at Facebook, it has since grown beyond the social network's specific use case. Essentially, the client describes the type of data they want, and the server delivers only that data. At Bearer, we use GraphQL internally to drive our dashboard.
When working with APIs you may come across the term REST or RESTful. REST stands for Representational State Transfer. In essence, REST is a set of recommendations that an API can adhere to. This makes designing the API easier and using the API more predictable.
The Consensus Assessments Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ) is a security assessment provided by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) for cloud consumers and auditors to assess information security capabilities of cloud providers.
API has become one of those catch-all terms that developers throw around without really considering the context. On any given week, you will come across discussions like "How to use the Twitter API", "New framework X is great because it has a low API surface", and "Best practices for building an API." Is an API a data source? Is it a service? Is it a way to call native functionality? The truth is, in modern software development it can mean any of these things.
The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) has put together a short guidance document on mitigating vulnerabilities for cloud computing. At only eight pages, it is an accessible primer for cloud security and a great place to start before taking on something like the comprehensive NIST 800-53 security controls.
