How deep do you want to go?
@jeffdavenport
I am considered by both IBM and HP to be an SME, with regard to Information Technology. I’m happy to help you out with what an API is, and why they exist.
@jeffdavenport Think of an electric guitar that plugs into a speaker. The output of the guitar is music which is also input for the speaker. The speaker knows what to do with the music coming into the port.
APIs are like the port on the speaker. They accept certain types of data and know what to do with it. Computers have *many* APIs. We use APIs to send commands to control computers, extract information, etc.
@jeffdavenport Think of it like the computer program version of a UI. You use an app or browser (UI) to access CoSo and a computer program uses an API to access another computer program.