WEBVTT 0 00:00.690 --> 00:05.010 First, let's take a look at what application programming interfaces 1 00:05.070 --> 00:10.070 are and then we'll see how we can use them to start pulling in some data from the 2 00:10.560 --> 00:13.290 internet. So when you're browsing the web, 3 00:13.320 --> 00:17.070 you might've realized that there's a lot of websites out there that carry a 4 00:17.070 --> 00:19.140 whole bunch of data. For example, 5 00:19.140 --> 00:24.140 you could go onto Yahoo weather and see next week's weather predictions for 6 00:24.390 --> 00:25.650 any city in the world, 7 00:26.100 --> 00:31.100 you could go onto Coinbase and see what is the current market value of various 8 00:31.650 --> 00:34.500 cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. 9 00:35.130 --> 00:39.600 You can also go onto the MBA website and look at various stats about your 10 00:39.600 --> 00:42.330 favorite basketball players. Now, 11 00:42.480 --> 00:45.540 what if we wanted to use the data that they have? 12 00:45.780 --> 00:50.250 How can we tap into it and use it in our own programs? Well, 13 00:50.280 --> 00:53.790 that's where application programming interfaces come into play. 14 00:54.390 --> 00:58.320 They all are a set of commands, functions, protocols, and objects 15 00:58.680 --> 01:03.680 that programmers can use to create software or interact with an external system. 16 01:05.430 --> 01:06.720 In the upcoming lessons 17 01:06.750 --> 01:11.280 what we're going to be focusing on is this interacting with external systems. 18 01:11.970 --> 01:12.510 Namely, 19 01:12.510 --> 01:17.510 we're going to try and interact with various websites and pull live data from 20 01:17.910 --> 01:20.010 those websites. Essentially, 21 01:20.010 --> 01:25.010 the API is an interface or rather a sort of barrier between your program and an 22 01:26.940 --> 01:27.900 external system. 23 01:28.530 --> 01:33.530 And what you're trying to do is you're trying to use the rules that the API has 24 01:33.810 --> 01:38.810 prescribed to make a request to the external system for some piece of data. 25 01:40.650 --> 01:42.810 And if you have structured your request 26 01:43.080 --> 01:48.080 according to all of the requirements that this external system has set out in 27 01:48.090 --> 01:48.923 their API, 28 01:49.200 --> 01:54.200 then they will respond to you appropriately and give you the data that you want. 29 01:56.940 --> 01:58.830 But if you don't follow the rules, 30 01:59.040 --> 02:03.090 then your request will be invalid and they will tell you to go away. 31 02:04.260 --> 02:09.120 So if we think about the websites we saw before, Yahoo weather has a Yahoo 32 02:09.120 --> 02:10.050 weather API 33 02:10.110 --> 02:14.700 which you can tap into using your programs or apps and get things like 10-day 34 02:14.700 --> 02:18.330 forecast, wind, atmosphere, astronomy conditions, 35 02:18.750 --> 02:21.360 and Coinbase has their own API, 36 02:21.420 --> 02:26.420 which lets you tap into the current live prices of various cryptocurrencies. 37 02:28.020 --> 02:32.310 And of course, the MBA also has an API for you to be able to get various 38 02:32.310 --> 02:37.310 information that you're interested in on leagues, teams, players, games and a whole 39 02:37.830 --> 02:38.663 bunch more. 40 02:39.630 --> 02:44.630 So essentially, you can imagine these websites as the sort of restaurant, 41 02:44.910 --> 02:45.330 right? 42 02:45.330 --> 02:50.330 And the data that powers these websites as the kitchen behind the scenes. 43 02:51.570 --> 02:56.570 We can't really go to a restaurant as a member of the public and just go in to 44 02:57.660 --> 03:01.150 the kitchen and start raiding their cupboards. You can't, you know, 45 03:01.810 --> 03:05.830 imagine going to your favorite Japanese restaurant and heading straight into the 46 03:05.830 --> 03:08.830 kitchen for some of your favorite Kewpie mayonnaise. 47 03:08.980 --> 03:12.160 That's not really appropriate. In a restaurant 48 03:12.190 --> 03:17.190 we have a menu and this menu is kind of like the interface between you and the 49 03:18.670 --> 03:19.503 restaurant. 50 03:19.690 --> 03:24.400 It's the thing that tells you what you can order and what you can't. 51 03:24.760 --> 03:28.420 So maybe you can get a cake, a sandwich or tea from the restaurant, 52 03:28.720 --> 03:32.380 but you can't just go into the kitchen and demand whatever it is that you want. 53 03:33.180 --> 03:37.170 Essentially an API is exactly that. It's the menu. 54 03:37.530 --> 03:41.850 It's all of the things that you can do to interact with 55 03:42.210 --> 03:45.240 an external system such as a website 56 03:45.240 --> 03:47.430 that carries data like Yahoo 57 03:47.430 --> 03:51.330 weather or the MBA website. In the coming lessons 58 03:51.360 --> 03:56.360 we're going to be looking at how we can read the documentation for the API and 59 03:56.520 --> 03:59.820 interact with them to be able to pull pieces of data that 60 03:59.880 --> 04:04.880 we want in the moment that we want it. So for all of that and more, 61 04:05.310 --> 04:06.360 I'll see on the next lesson.