Introduction to APIs in Google | Qwiklabs
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) are software programs that give developers access to computing resources and data. Companies from many different fields offer publicly available APIs so that developers can integrate specialized tools, services, or libraries with their own applications and codebase.
This lab will teach you about the architecture and basic functioning of APIs. This will be supplemented with hands-on practice, where you will configure and run Cloud Storage API methods in Google Cloud Shell. After taking this lab you will understand key principles of API communication, architecture, and authentication. You will also gain practical experience with APIs, which you can apply to future labs or projects.
In this lab, you will learn about:
As mentioned earlier, an API (Application Programming Interface) is a software program that gives developers access to computing resources and data. APIs adhere to specific rules and methods to clearly communicate requests and responses.
The ability to access data and computing resources greatly increases a developer's efficiency. It is much easier to use an API than to build every single program, method, or dataset from scratch. APIs are built on the principle of abstraction—you don't need to understand the inner workings or complexities of an API to use it in your own environment.
APIs are built with the developer in mind and often times do not offer a graphical user interface (GUI). However, there are exceptions to this standard. Google has released a new tool called APIs Explorer, which allows you to explore various Google APIs interactively (be sure to check out the APIs Explorer: Qwik Start lab afterwards if you are interested in learning more.)
Google offers APIs that can be applied to many different fields and sectors. APIs are often used in web development, machine learning, data science, and system administration workflows. However, these are only a handful of use cases. If you explore AnyAPI, for example, you will start to see just how many APIs are available.
When Qwiklabs provisions a new Google Cloud Project for a lab instance, it enables most APIs behind the scenes so you can work on the lab's tasks right away. If you create your own projects outside of Qwiklabs, you will have to enable certain APIs yourself.
As you gain proficiency as a Google Cloud user, you will start to use more APIs in your workflow. Experienced users will integrate and use Cloud APIs in their local environments almost exclusively, rarely using the Cloud Console to run tools and services. Dozens of labs are available that give you practice with various Google APIs in different languages. Here are two for example: