Advice/help with API

Graham

Computors are not really my "thing" or at least since programming using Fortran…

So just to get me started how do I access the API?

Or/and what program do I need on a Apple Mac? Is it a part of Adobe creative suite?

Is there a beginers guide somewhere? I don't know what to look or search for.

This prob sounds dense to most of you - just looking for a pointer at how to learn.

Thanks Graham

Stragus

You can "access" the API with even just a browser, but you'll just get a bunch of JSON data in return, and it's not quite a human-friendly format.

The API is not really meant to be used by humans, it's meant to be used by custom software talking to BrickOwl. And someone has to write that custom software.

Are there BrickOwl operations you would like to perform, and for which you think the API would help?

misbi

There is no API beginner's guide because it's not intended for use by beginners!

You could do what I did as a beginner - start off by Googling API and work from there. Allow one full month of evenings and weekends just to get your head around the terminologies, then you'll be ready to decide which programming software is right for you. After that, the real challenge begins. It's a reverse learning curve because the biggest hurdle (authentication) comes first.

It is possible to figure out though, but you have to be VERY determined and prepared to figure it out for yourself in the early learning stages.

If non of the above appeals, you'll just have to accept that APIs are a feature provided by developers for use by other developers.

technobrick

Hi, API is just an "Interface", means that for example you can access/change data in a database without direct access to database. There are different types of APIs for different applications. Regardless of the type of API, you need to know a programming language to develop your application, for example you could use PHP, Python, Java etc... Now, your application makes an API call to the remote server (in our case the Brickowl database to read/write data). This requires authentication before making the calls and that's where you need the API keys. In a simple example, imagine that you wanted to see your inventory on BrickOwl. First, you need to develop a small application software using the above mentioned languages to make a API call. This call contains your API Key and your request type which will be sent from your computer to the server. Server, authenticates you using the key and responds with a list of your inventory (normally in Json format) which looks like and XML file. Now, once you received that response, you need to parse it in your application to get the information in the file, for example format it in a table. This is just an example of how an API works. Working with APIs require some experience but it's not difficult to learn it once you had a basic understanding of a programming language. I recommend Googling "API examples" and you will find some examples, but as I said each website may provide different APIs and methods are different. One most common API is called "RESTfull API" method. Hope it helps.

Graham

OK thanks all…

After I've got taxes out the way - I definately intend to give it a go!