API Integration- Tandem NZ

1. www.tan demnz.co .nz API Integration Chris Cameron Tandem NZ www.tandemnz.co.nz ✆ ✆0800 826 366 ✉ ✉support@tandemnz.co.nz

2. API INTEGRATION TANDEM NZ WHAT IS API INTEGRATION AND WHY YOU NEED AN API INTEGRATION PLATFORM What are APIs? What are APIs? API, also called Application Program Interface (API) is a set of protocols, routines, and tools required for building the software applications, and finding a relevant API is the initial part of your software development process. In other words, we can also define API as a software intermediary that allows two applications to interact with each other. API acts In this article, we have elaborate the basics of API which will help as a messenger that delivers your you to better understand the need of an API Integration Platform. request to the provider and later Points covered are: delivers the response back to you. 1. How do APIs work? 2. What are the types of APIs? 3. APIs for social media marketing 4. Why APIs are Important for you? APIs streamline the process Expand Business with APIs Packaging and Selling your API Build a New Product Using APIs Enhancing Your Product with APIs 5. Take away points 1 www.tandemnz.co.nz

3. API INTEGRATION TANDEM NZ How Do APIs Work? If you are using any mobile application, the application connects to the Internet and sends data to a server. The server then retrieves all the data and interprets it. Then, the server performs all necessary actions and sends it back to your phone. The entire process in which the application interprets the data and presents you with the information you wanted in a readable way is called API. What Are The Types Of APIs? APIs are either Public, or Private. Public APIs Companies like Google, Slack, and Shopify released the APIs for the developers to use. The company also shares the set of input that you can use to achieve certain outputs and for every input, they agree to give an output and the output does not differ in form. The API in Slack is available to browse and use. Private APIs Private APIs are for the company’s internal use. If a company is using multiple software products, private APIs helps the software to interact with each other. 2 www.tandemnz.co.nz

4. API INTEGRATION TANDEM NZ APIs for Social Media Marketing All major social media channels have APIs. You can build on them to improve your experience, but it is prohibited to duplicate the company’s core service and sell that as your own software. Sprout Social It’s a third party social media management platform. This third party social media management platform allows you to post, comment and like the post on your behalf to your account. The major advantage of software that is built on social media APIs– You can view the multiple accounts in one place, and at the same time, it has limitation like you can’t schedule an Instagram post to be uploaded on a given day in your absence. Instagram Recently, Instagram has started testing the third-party API access. Its partner Sprout, now provides a feature to schedule and publish the images from a separate tool. Twitter The APIs on Twitter allows you to access some points of a public profile. For the basic use of API, you can write a program to search for someone’s username and it’ll return the profile page. You need not approach Twitter website every time you have a request. The API gives access to the program to return the profile page. 3 www.tandemnz.co.nz

5. API INTEGRATION TANDEM NZ Why APIs Are Important For You? As we have explained earlier, the internet user experience depends on APIs. Instead of accessing four different companies in four different times, you can use one software to access all four companies at the same time. 5 Points Why APIs Are Important For You APIs streamline the process Expand Business with APIs Packaging and Selling your API Build a New Product Using APIs Enhance Your Product with APIs APIs Streamline the Process The best example of APIs helping in streamline the process is Sprout Social Smart Inbox. Previously, you would log in to Facebook and Twitter individually to check the messages, to search or to reply on images or post you were tagged. Now, API has made your life super easy. Through network’s APIs, you can see it all in one view. Expand Business with APIs You can expand your business by opening up your API and sharing data. This also enhances your product, brings new users/customers to you, or re-engages users. Packaging and Selling Your API Packaging and selling your API is a great way to establish partnerships with other companies, so, you should consider monetizing your data to know who exactly is using it. 4 www.tandemnz.co.nz

6. API INTEGRATION TANDEM NZ Build a New Product Using APIs API helps you to offer a new service or app that can be built off the data already being collected. With APIs you don’t need to reinvent, you can directly use the data that’s already being aggregated from new and innovative products and services. Enhancing Your Product with APIs API brings a lot of possibilities that enhances the user experience, streamline your processes, or improve operational efficiency. Through APIs, the internal software can interact with mobile applications, as a result, your salesperson can access all information on the go. It also allows accessing the outside data that helps your users. For an example: accessing of Google’s API to allow users to add appointments to their Google Calendar. Take Away Points for API Platform It’s rare for an end-user to directly interact with an API, but a developer works with APIs to create software and apps that act as a wrapper around an API. API operates as a gate, it keeps unwanted requests out and at the same time, it allows companies to share select information. APIs can compile the information and help you create a consolidated view as per your needs. You can build the business on APIs. Sprout Social is one big example of a software that is built on the API of social media networks. The team of experts in Tandem NZ can help you in identifying qualified 3rd party vendors, and guide you towards the most favourable licensing deals as quickly as possible. For services like advanced API technology, 3rd party integration, please contact us right now. 5 www.tandemnz.co.nz