Getting Started

What is an API?

An API is an Application Programming Interface. It is a set of rules and protocols for building and interacting with software applications. You can think of an API as a menu in a restaurant: The meny provides a list of dishes you can order, along with a description of each dish. When you specify what menu items you want, the restaurant's kitchen does the work and provides you with some finished dishes. You don't know exactly how the restaurant prepares that food, and you don't really need to.

Similarly, an API lists operations that developers can use, along with a description of what they do. The developer doesn't necessarily need to know how the API internally performs the desired operation. All they need to know is what the API expects as input, what the API does, and what the API returns as output.

The TuffySearch API is a Web API, which means that it can be accessed over the internet using the same protocols that web browsers use to access web pages (HTTP), and returns data in the JSON format. You can read more about the HTTP Protocol here (opens in a new tab).

What is a REST API?

The TuffySearch API is a REST API. REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer. To put it simply, REST is an architectural style for building APIs. It is not a standard, but rather a set of constraints that an API must follow to be considered RESTful. You can read more about REST here (opens in a new tab). One key constraint of REST is that it is stateless, meaning that each request is independent of any other request. This means that the server does not need to keep track of any information about the client between requests.

Additionally, all resources in a REST API are accessible through endpoints. A resource is an object that can be accessed and manipulated by the API. For example, in the case of the TuffySearch API, a resource could be a course. Each resource has a unique identifier, which is used to access that resource like so:

GET /api/courses?course_id=538057

How do I get started?

To get started, you can use your favorite HTTP client or programming language to make requests to the TuffySearch API. Some popular HTTP clients include Postman (opens in a new tab) and httpie (opens in a new tab). You can also use your favorite programming language to make requests. Here are some examples of how to make requests using different programming languages:

main.py

import requests
 
# Make a GET request to the TuffySearch API
response = requests.get("https://tuffysearch.com/api/courses?course_id=538057")
 
# Print the response
print(response.json())

Introduction API Guide