It’s rare that an organization decides it needs an API out of the blue — most often, organizations start with an idea, application, innovation, or use case that requires connectivity to other systems or datasets.
APIs come into the picture as a means of enabling connectivity between the systems and datasets that need to be integrated.
Organizations may use different types of APIs for different purposes: from exposing a core system's functionality internally, to enabling a customer-facing mobile app. MuleSoft's API-led connectivity approach includes three categories of APIs:
Once you’ve determined the use case for your organization’s APIs, it’s time to determine who will be accessing these APIs. Most often the use case and the intended user go hand-in-hand — for example, you may want to surface customer data for your internal sales and service agents, the intended end-user, in this case, is internal employees.
Below are three types of APIs based on how they are managed and who they are accessed by:
External APIs can be accessed by third-parties (developers, partners, etc.) that are external to the organization. They often make an organization's data and services easily accessible on a self-service basis by developers around the world who are looking to create innovative applications and integrations.
An example of an open API is the Google Maps API that is used across third-party applications (such as ridesharing and food delivery apps) to enable location tracking and mapping.
Internal APIs are the opposite of open APIs in that they are inaccessible to external consumers and only available to an organization’s internal developers. Internal APIs can enable enterprise-wide initiatives from the adoption of DevOps and microservice architectures to legacy modernization and digital transformation. The use and reuse of these APIs can enhance an organization's productivity, efficiency, and agility.
An example of a reusable internal API is if a call center team created a customer information API used in a call center application to access their name, contact information, account info, etc. That team can then reuse this same API in a customer-facing web application or mobile application.
Partner APIs fall somewhere in the middle of internal and external APIs. They are APIs that are accessed by others outside the organization with exclusive permissions. Usually, this special access is afforded to specific third-parties to facilitate a strategic business partnership.
A common use case of a partner API is when two organizations want to share data with each other — such as a county’s health department and a hospital within that county. A partner API would be set up so each organization has access to the necessary data with the right set of credentials and permissions.
Another area of choice for an API is which architectural style or styles will be employed. It’s critical to choose an architectural style or pattern that best supports the intended use of the API if certain functional capabilities are needed. This tends to be an API design decision that is made by more technically-inclined teams.
Before making this decision, you’ll need to have a basic understanding of what infrastructure is already in place — whether the systems are on-premise or cloud-based, which systems and datasets need to be used, what security protocols need to be implemented, and what functionalities are needed. In the spirit of API-first design, the desired functionality and user experiences should inform changes to the legacy IT estate rather than allowing the status quo of the legacy IT estate to dictate functionality or experience.
There are various styles of architecture for APIs, as well as varying data formats within these styles, below we’ve listed some of the most common:
We are surrounded by all kinds of events to which this API pattern is well-suited. Here are just a few:
Designing and managing effective APIs requires many considerations. The above content should provide a snapshot of the different decisions organizations need to make when preparing to design, deploy, and manage an API. For more information, download our whitepaper on API-led connectivity.
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