1 00:00:00,690 --> 00:00:05,010 First, let's take a look at what application programming interfaces 2 00:00:05,070 --> 00:00:10,070 are and then we'll see how we can use them to start pulling in some data from the 3 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:13,290 internet. So when you're browsing the web, 4 00:00:13,320 --> 00:00:17,070 you might've realized that there's a lot of websites out there that carry a 5 00:00:17,070 --> 00:00:19,140 whole bunch of data. For example, 6 00:00:19,140 --> 00:00:24,140 you could go onto Yahoo weather and see next week's weather predictions for 7 00:00:24,390 --> 00:00:25,650 any city in the world, 8 00:00:26,100 --> 00:00:31,100 you could go onto Coinbase and see what is the current market value of various 9 00:00:31,650 --> 00:00:34,500 cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. 10 00:00:35,130 --> 00:00:39,600 You can also go onto the MBA website and look at various stats about your 11 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,330 favorite basketball players. Now, 12 00:00:42,480 --> 00:00:45,540 what if we wanted to use the data that they have? 13 00:00:45,780 --> 00:00:50,250 How can we tap into it and use it in our own programs? Well, 14 00:00:50,280 --> 00:00:53,790 that's where application programming interfaces come into play. 15 00:00:54,390 --> 00:00:58,320 They all are a set of commands, functions, protocols, and objects 16 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:03,680 that programmers can use to create software or interact with an external system. 17 00:01:05,430 --> 00:01:06,720 In the upcoming lessons 18 00:01:06,750 --> 00:01:11,280 what we're going to be focusing on is this interacting with external systems. 19 00:01:11,970 --> 00:01:12,510 Namely, 20 00:01:12,510 --> 00:01:17,510 we're going to try and interact with various websites and pull live data from 21 00:01:17,910 --> 00:01:20,010 those websites. Essentially, 22 00:01:20,010 --> 00:01:25,010 the API is an interface or rather a sort of barrier between your program and an 23 00:01:26,940 --> 00:01:27,900 external system. 24 00:01:28,530 --> 00:01:33,530 And what you're trying to do is you're trying to use the rules that the API has 25 00:01:33,810 --> 00:01:38,810 prescribed to make a request to the external system for some piece of data. 26 00:01:40,650 --> 00:01:42,810 And if you have structured your request 27 00:01:43,080 --> 00:01:48,080 according to all of the requirements that this external system has set out in 28 00:01:48,090 --> 00:01:48,923 their API, 29 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:54,200 then they will respond to you appropriately and give you the data that you want. 30 00:01:56,940 --> 00:01:58,830 But if you don't follow the rules, 31 00:01:59,040 --> 00:02:03,090 then your request will be invalid and they will tell you to go away. 32 00:02:04,260 --> 00:02:09,120 So if we think about the websites we saw before, Yahoo weather has a Yahoo 33 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:10,050 weather API 34 00:02:10,110 --> 00:02:14,700 which you can tap into using your programs or apps and get things like 10-day 35 00:02:14,700 --> 00:02:18,330 forecast, wind, atmosphere, astronomy conditions, 36 00:02:18,750 --> 00:02:21,360 and Coinbase has their own API, 37 00:02:21,420 --> 00:02:26,420 which lets you tap into the current live prices of various cryptocurrencies. 38 00:02:28,020 --> 00:02:32,310 And of course, the MBA also has an API for you to be able to get various 39 00:02:32,310 --> 00:02:37,310 information that you're interested in on leagues, teams, players, games and a whole 40 00:02:37,830 --> 00:02:38,663 bunch more. 41 00:02:39,630 --> 00:02:44,630 So essentially, you can imagine these websites as the sort of restaurant, 42 00:02:44,910 --> 00:02:45,330 right? 43 00:02:45,330 --> 00:02:50,330 And the data that powers these websites as the kitchen behind the scenes. 44 00:02:51,570 --> 00:02:56,570 We can't really go to a restaurant as a member of the public and just go in to 45 00:02:57,660 --> 00:03:01,150 the kitchen and start raiding their cupboards. You can't, you know, 46 00:03:01,810 --> 00:03:05,830 imagine going to your favorite Japanese restaurant and heading straight into the 47 00:03:05,830 --> 00:03:08,830 kitchen for some of your favorite Kewpie mayonnaise. 48 00:03:08,980 --> 00:03:12,160 That's not really appropriate. In a restaurant 49 00:03:12,190 --> 00:03:17,190 we have a menu and this menu is kind of like the interface between you and the 50 00:03:18,670 --> 00:03:19,503 restaurant. 51 00:03:19,690 --> 00:03:24,400 It's the thing that tells you what you can order and what you can't. 52 00:03:24,760 --> 00:03:28,420 So maybe you can get a cake, a sandwich or tea from the restaurant, 53 00:03:28,720 --> 00:03:32,380 but you can't just go into the kitchen and demand whatever it is that you want. 54 00:03:33,180 --> 00:03:37,170 Essentially an API is exactly that. It's the menu. 55 00:03:37,530 --> 00:03:41,850 It's all of the things that you can do to interact with 56 00:03:42,210 --> 00:03:45,240 an external system such as a website 57 00:03:45,240 --> 00:03:47,430 that carries data like Yahoo 58 00:03:47,430 --> 00:03:51,330 weather or the MBA website. In the coming lessons 59 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:56,360 we're going to be looking at how we can read the documentation for the API and 60 00:03:56,520 --> 00:03:59,820 interact with them to be able to pull pieces of data that 61 00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:04,880 we want in the moment that we want it. So for all of that and more, 62 00:04:05,310 --> 00:04:06,360 I'll see on the next lesson.