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Jul 14, 2009

What is the meaning of Application programming interface (API) ?

In computer science, an application programming interface (API) is an interface defining the ways by which an application program may request services from libraries and/or operating systems.


An API may be:

* Language-dependent; that is, available only in a particular programming language, using the particular syntax and elements of the programming language to make the Application Programming Interface convenient to use in this particular context.

* Language-independent; that is, written in a way that means it can be called from several programming languages (typically an assembly or C interface). This is a desired feature for a service-style API that is not bound to a particular process or system and is available as a remote procedure call.


The API acronym may sometimes be used as a reference, not only to the full interface, but also to a single function or even a set of multiple APIs provided by an organization. Thus the scope is usually determined by the person or document that communicates the information.