RESTful API

This is the most common type of API that most social media provides. The information from a REST API is static and is from historical data. The back history of data can vary from platform to platform. Facebook calls its REST API service Graph API.

Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest among others have given access to their APIs to the public through robust data infrastructures. Another real-time version of the RESTful API of Twitter is the Streaming API. The two are inherently similar, but with different usages. We will explore the standard RESTful APIs of the most common platforms and also the Streaming API of Twitter.

REST stands for Representational State Transfer and it relies on the HTTP protocol for data transfer between machines. It has been created to simplify the transfer of data between machines unlike previous web services such as CORBA, RPC, and SOAP. Since the architecture of REST uses the HTTP protocol, it would be fair to assume that the WWW itself is based on RESTful design. Two of the most important uses of RESTful services are:

• Get: Procedure to receive data from a distant machine
• Post: Procedure to write data to a distant machine

Almost all the functionalities of a REST API can be used through the preceding two methods.