Developers optimize their software products according to business needs and requirements. For software products that have recently become more global, developers strive to find new performance, scalability, and availability solutions. In particular, developers should act very carefully and diligently during API development to avoid performance problems in the software development process. Although only REST API comes to mind for API development, many API protocols have been revealed for many needs today.
The API development process is a very important process for developers. If the developers did not use an API gateway on the API server, the APIs of the application are the only gateways to the outside. Therefore, they should be more careful when they are developing APIs. Consideration of the API protocol should precede the commencement of API development. Apart from the REST API, there are many API protocols for developers. In this article, we will first introduce the popular API protocols. Then, we will list the differences between OData and REST API, which developers actively use today.
Table of Contents
What are the Common API Protocols?
Today, developers can use many API protocols in their applications according to their various needs. Popular ones are as follows:
- OData: Developers use OData to query data sources via URL and customize the resulting data. Since it is HTTP-based, it performs all queries via URL. APIs also meet the needs of customizing the data to be obtained and transforming it into different formats according to the needs. It directly undertakes the query on the entities and ensures that the developers only deal with the business logic.
- REST: REST is an architecture that works over the HTTP protocol and provides client-server communication. It enables the application to communicate by carrying data in JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), XML, CVS, and many more formats between that client and server. Furthermore, developers refer to REST architecture services as RESTful services (or RESTful APIs). Additionally, it provides developers with an easy API integration process. Finally, it also supports API key usage for security and API usage tracking. Learn all about REST API design!
- SOAP: Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is a protocol used to exchange data between client and server. A SOAP API carries data in XML format and provides a standard communication structure between web services. SOAP APIs developed with this protocol are used to transmit a request made by the client to the server, transmit the response processed by the server to the client, and exchange data.
What are the Differences Between OData and REST API?
In the design and communication of web services, developers commonly use two different approaches: OData (Open Data Protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer) API.
Here are the main differences between OData and REST API:
- Data Processing: OData adds data querying and processing capabilities on top of REST APIs. OData can process data using OData Query Language, which supports filtering, sorting, paging, and other query operations. REST APIs, on the other hand, often serve data directly and may require a separate middleware to provide querying capabilities.Meet the best SERP API of recent times, which has high-level querying capabilities and offers multiple services with URL queries!
- Data Discovery: OData has a service identification and publishing mechanism that facilitates the discovery of the data sources offered. An OData service allows published entities (e.g., tables, relationships) and access paths to these entities to be defined by a certain standard. REST APIs, on the other hand, are generally service documentation and discovery with documentation.
- Client Relationship: OData has a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) format that makes it easy for clients to interact with an OData service. OData defines the client-item relationship using standardized URI patterns for data sources, queries, filters, and other operations. REST APIs, on the other hand, support access to resources via URIs, but provide less standardization.
Conclusion
In summary, developers can use multiple API protocols and architectures for API development. Developers have developed these protocols as solutions to different needs. In this article, we compared OData and REST protocols, which developers frequently prefer in accordance with the application structure and business requirements.
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FAQs
Q: What is the OData?
A: The Open Data (OData) protocol is a popular API protocol for querying and updating data over HTTP. The OData client makes API calls with a URL that contains query string parameters to the OData server. The client then receives a response in any format as a result.
Q: How Does the REST API (Application Programming Interface) Work?
A: Firstly, a client makes a request to the REST API. This request is made over the HTTP protocol. The request targets a specific resource via a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). The REST API processes the request made by the client by forwarding it to the server. The server receives the request and takes appropriate action on the request. This action can change the server’s state or take action on a particular resource. Finally, the server returns a response to the client.
Q: Is Postman an API Testing Tool?
A: Yes, it is. Postman is a very popular HTTP API testing framework, tool today. Additionally, developers can prepare API documentation and API definitions with this testing tool. Lastly, developers may prefer Postman to create automated test cases easily.
Q: How to Make a REST API Documentation?
A: You can follow the steps below while preparing REST API documentation:
- Identifying the Purposes of the API
- Providing the Basics
- Showing API Endpoints and Request Structure
- Providing Request and Response Samples
- Authorization and Authentication
- Error Handling
