2.1 Introduction
In previous chapters, you explored the basics of collecting your own data. While web scraping is a powerful technique, it can also be “unstructured,” meaning you need to impose your own organization on data extracted from someone else’s website. Fortunately, there are more efficient and structured ways to gather large amounts of data online—provided these methods are available. One such method involves A system of tools and resources in an operating system enabling developers to create software applications., which are, at their core, a set of tools and protocols within an operating system that enable developers to build software applications.
APIs come in various forms, one of the most common being a A software architectural style that was created to guide the design and development of the architecture for the World Wide Web.. REST, or Representational State Transfer, is a software architectural style designed to support distributed systems on the World Wide Web. A RESTful web service, often referred to as a REST API, follows a set of widely accepted principles and constraints for creating stateless, reliable APIs. These APIs use standard HTTP methods (e.g., GET, POST, PUT, DELETE) to access resources through URL-encoded parameters and typically transmit data in formats like JSON or XML. APIs that adhere to these REST principles are described as “RESTful.”
One significant advantage of web services is their ability to facilitate distributed applications. This means the data and processing logic required for an application can be spread across multiple servers rather than being tightly coupled into a single system. This modularity allows for flexibility, much like building with LEGO bricks. If a particular component is no longer needed or suitable, it can be replaced with minimal effort.
Images in this section were created using DALL·E from OpenAI.