Consuming REST APIs
What is API Consumption?
Consuming an API means utilizing its functionalities, data, or services in your own applications or systems. It involves making requests to an API to access its features, retrieve data, or perform specific actions. This interaction is done by sending HTTP requests (such as GET, POST, or PUT) to the API endpoint, and in return, receiving the desired information or triggering specific actions.
Why Consume an API?
By consuming an API, you can:
Integrate functionalities from other systems.
Leverage existing APIs for specific features, saving time and resources. For example, integrating a payment gateway API allows your application to process payments without building the payment processing logic from scratch.
Access to specific data sets or resources from external sources or services. For example, consuming a weather API to get real-time weather information for a specific location.
Offer your users a more comprehensive and enriched application, by providing access to additional services or data.
How to Consume an API?
Reasy offers two methods of consuming a REST API - one is by configuring and the other by importing raw text.
Configure REST API
Select the method and enter the endpoint URL.
In the “General” tab: enter the API name, select an entity to map to it, choose the content type (parameter type: JSON/XML), and select the authorization type.
In the “Data” tab: select the required input and output attributes. If your API deals with only one record, you can restrict it to a single row.
Next, if there are any custom headers to employ, add them under the "Custom Headers" tab, by entering the key-value pairs.
Then, enter the sample request and response in the respective tabs. Further, you can quickly eliminate the empty objects by enabling the "Remove empty tags" option.
Check "Allow query parameters", to allow users to sort and filter data by appending them to the end of the URL, and then Create.
This creates an API. You can access it from the mapped entity in the Navigation Explorer. Open it to view its flow on the canvas. Now, you can modify the API as needed.
Import API
To import an API, switch to the Import tab and choose the file in JSON, YML, or YAML format. Alternatively, you can manually enter the code using the Raw Text option.
Then, select the objects and methods before you import. The imported APIIt's that simple to import an API.
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