What is an API? A Brief Overview

If you’re new to the world of front end development, you might have heard the term “API”. API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and is something that we use all the time without knowing about it.  APIs allow for the communication between two different applications.  For example, a project can author an API that allows for other projects to pull features or data from their interface.  The original project doesn’t have to share any of their code for the features or data.

Here’s a definition from Wikipedia:

“An Application Programming Interface (API) is a particular set of rules and specifications that a software program can follow to access and make use of the services and resources provided by another particular software program that implements that API. It serves as an interface between different software programs and facilitates their interaction, similar to the way the user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.”

Mentioned previously, APIs are everywhere.  Let’s take a news article for example.  At the bottom of the page, articles usually have a social media bar that has links to facebook, twitter, reddit, etc. so that you can share the article on your own social media page.  All of these features are powered by APIs.  Even the comment system, which is sometimes powered by facebook comments, uses the facebook API to pull your profile name, picture, location, etc.

The LATimes uses the facebook commenting system for their news articles

What can you do with them?

If you’re a blogger or journalist, having those sharable social media buttons would be a nice touch for your content.  However, we’re not all journalists.

I think most people have a Twitter account nowadays.  Twitter has built a widget that uses their API to create a timeline for one individual.  You can then link this timeline on your webpages.  I’ve used this for several projects and it is a great way to show off tweets without having to actually go to Twitter.  Again, Twitter is using an API to share their features with another application without having to share their code for Twitter.

To access this widget, just go to your settings menu, then go to Widgets, and Create A New Widget.  

I decided to create a timeline for my master’s program:

Tweets by @EloniMedia

This is just one example of what can API can do.  I’ve also recently worked with Vimeo’s Player Embedding API to show all of my account’s videos on a web page without having to go to the actual Vimeo website.

For your next project, explore how you might possibly display something with an API rather than the normal way.

Tool Review: Sublime Text 2- make the switch to a better text editor

For developers, the debate over which text editor to use is along the lines of every other product comparison feud; each product has its positives and negatives for people.  However, there seems to be a text editor that is standing out more than others: Sublime Text 2.  Sublime Text is marketed as a code, markup, and prose editor.  It’s fast, available on all platforms, and has a few tricks up its sleeves.

One of the first things that sticks out about Sublime Text is the overall look.  The colorful text really contrasts the black background.  You really feel like you’re in one of those movies that has some guy coding on a black screen with green text all night.

On the right, another scrollable frame exists that shows your entire project zoomed out.  Sublime Text calls this the Minimap.  This is really useful for when you are working in a large project and need to quickly scroll through the text.

Most code editors can be visually altered, so looks aren’t everything.  So what else makes Sublime Text special?

Navigating documents and Sublime Text is very fast.  One of their features, Goto Anything, allows users to open a document with ⌘P and then they can begin typing the name of the document. Once the document is open, they can type @ to quickly jump to symbols, lines, or words.

Sublime Text 2 in action

You can also be at several places in the document at once. Multiple Selections allows users to type on multiple lines at once.  Instead of making ten changes across the document, you can change all of those lines at once.  This is especially useful for when you need to rename variables or make batch edits.

You can also quickly change the syntax of documents.  If you're working in a CSS documents and it hasn't automatically changed the syntax to CSS, you can do so.  This syntax has special color coded tags that allows for easier editing and navigation within documents.

Another appeal is that it is the same across all platforms.  Currently, Sublime Text 2 is $70, but your purchase extends your license across all platforms.

With that said, Sublime Text 2 is highly customizable.  This is probably the most important feature and why Sublime Text is so popular.  There is a huge library of plugins, which allow for further customization.  In a future blog post, I will discuss some further enhancements you can make to get the most out of this text editor.