Study Note For API's: These Two Main Data Formats You Should Know

What is API's?

API's stands for application programming interface.

They are interfaces for code or computers to talk to one another. For example, we can use a Facebook account to login to Instagram. When we connect these two apps, Instagrams will link to and access your Facebook data. When you upload photos on Instagram, it will be automatically uploaded on Facebook, too.

We also use a lot of Web API's every day. Web API's generally to communicate via HTTP. For example, we may ask Yelp API's to recommend 10 nearby Sushi restaurants in a certain zip code.

Data Formats

There are two main formats that web API is responded with: XML and JSON.

When we use the internet, we make an HTTP request and get HTML back. API's don't respond with HTML because HTML contains information about the structure of a page. API's respond with data, not structure.

XML

XML stands for Extended Markup Language.

It is syntactically similar to HTML, but it doesn't describe presentation like HTML does.

For example, we make personal data in XML like this:

All XML does is code key-value pairs. It looks like HTML in syntax format, but it is not. It is just displaying the basic information of a person such as a name, age, and gender in closing tags.

JSON

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation.

JSON is another way of storing data and sending that data back. It looks exactly like JavaScript objects, but everything is in a string.

We use the same example, but we write it in JSON format:

Comparing to XML, JSON is a much easier option. It is short and contains less text where we don't have to write those closing tags. It also works great with JavaScript which we are going to write it in most time.

Comments

Intermediate Express.js: How To Add Styles & Partials in EJS File?

So far, we only have simple HTML tags and ejs tags in each ejs file. Every template page has no style at all. And the basic HTML header and footer are also missing. Today, I learned how to add styles and partials in ejs file. Link Style Step One: Touch a Separate CSS file I create a new directory "Style" under the "EJSDemo" directory, then I add a new CSS file "app.css" inside "Style" folder. Step Two: Add app.use(express.static()) in the app.js I add app.use(express.static("style")) in the "app.js". This will tell Express.js to serve the content of "Style" directory. Step Three: Write styles in CSS file I simple give body an orange background color and set text color to be grey. Step Four: Link to CSS file in the EJS file I just add <link> tag to link the "app.css" file on the top of the h1 tag in each ejs template. As the result, when I run the app and...

Intermediate Express.Js: Write Conditions and Loops In The EJS (study note)

We continue to use the app.js which we have build to be the study example. In the last post, we only add a simple EJS tag <%= thingVar %> inside h1 tag. This will match the "thing" to any "thing" request from the user. If Statement Today, the course shows us to write a simple if statement in the EJS file. I learn to apply it to my own app. In the if statement, if users send"/wantto/workout" request, the page will show a new content "Good Idea!". We wrote the if statement in the "diet.ejs" file, and we add "<% %>" tags around the code. We have to wrap every line of JavaScript anytime JavaScript starts and ends. Moreover, you may see there are two types of ejs tags here: <%= %> The one with equal sign. According to the course, when we add equal sign, the value that is returned inside of the tag will be rendered to the HTML page. it will be added to the HTML. For example, if we write ...

My Story: A Mommy Start To Learn Code From Zero

From Google Image I am not a programmer, and I thought I would never become one. Everytime I see someone is coding, I think he or she must be very talent. For me, coding is a very difficult subject to learn. Not only the language has so many rules, but also the logical reasoning behind the language is complex. In my graduated school, I knew many friends who didn't have any coding background, but they are doing programmer or developer jobs now. Some of them went to school to study coding, and some of them learned to code by themselves. Their stories are so impressive. I wasn't ready to learn code until I finished my first Chinese book "留学，我的青春呀!" recently. I always want to be a writer and write my own book. I started writing blog three years ago, and I updated my post two to three times every week. As I enjoyed writing , I started to get some followers, likes, and good comments on my blog. Then, I decided to plan my first book. My First...

Learn Bootcamp From Zero

Search This Blog