API Definition

Note: The solution in this chapter needs to be used with API of Jodoo and Webhook. Contact us: hello@jodoo.com.

Everyone is talking about API, but what exactly is API? For many people who are not IT professionals, API is an incomprehensible thing. But even if you are not IT professionals, knowing more about API may save you a lot of costs. In daily life, there are many API-like scenarios, such as:

If you want to call information from a mobile phone to a computer, then you will take a data cable to connect the computer and mobile phone. The interface connecting the data cable between the computer and the mobile phone is API.

But the example above is just a metaphor, not the essence of API. To truly understand the API, you have to know about the usage scenarios of API.

Encyclopedia introduction:

API, or Application Programming Interface, is composed of some pre-defined functions, designed to provide apps and developers the ability to access a set of routines based on a certain software or hardware without accessing the source code or understanding the details of the inner working mechanism.

We might as well show the birth of API with a short story:

Developer A has developed software A and developer B is developing software B.

One day, developer B wants to call some functions of software A, but does not want to go through the source code and function realization process of software A from the beginning, what should developer B do?

Developer A thought of a good idea: I packaged the functions you need in software A and wrote them as a function. Follow the process that I set, put this function in software B, and you can use my functions directly.

API is the function mentioned by developer A.

So how to use API in practice?

Through the open API interface of Jodoo, a certain office software connects the functions of Jodoo and the ERP system, which is equivalent to using the functions of the two softwares, but the data is completely connected.

Based on the content above, we can have a basic understanding of API, but the process of connecting API is not so simple for people who are not IT professionals, because it involves server construction and other issues, so generally companies that use API need to have an information sector.

However, recently we discovered a foreign software Zapier. Through integrating this platform with more than 1000 well-known software such as Slack, Trello, Excel, and Gmail, the process of connecting API has been greatly simplified. As the example above shows, if API is the interface between the computer and the mobile phone, then Zapier is equivalent to a standard Android data cable.

Through Zapier, many common softwares can be connected to generate new functions. If you have a Jodoo account with an API interface enabled, you can connect Jodoo with these well-known softwares such as Slack and Trello. For example, the following is a scenario where Jodoo and Gmail are connected through Zapier.

The original mode of using forms in Jodoo: The user opens the external link, enters data in the form, and submits it.

Now after the Gmail function is connected with Jodoo: The user opens the external link, enters the data and email address in the form, and the user will receive an email after submitting the form.