Book Image

Web Development with MongoDB and Node.js

By : Jason Krol
Book Image

Web Development with MongoDB and Node.js

By: Jason Krol

Overview of this book

This book is designed for developers of any skill level that want to get up and running using Node.js and MongoDB to build full featured web applications. A basic understanding of JavaScript and HTML is the only requirement for this book.
Table of Contents (14 chapters)
12
12. Popular Node.js Web Frameworks
13
Index

What is an API?


An Application Programming Interface (API) is a set of tools that a computer system makes available that provides unrelated systems or software the ability to interact with each other. Typically, a developer uses an API when writing software that will interact with a closed, external, software system. The external software system provides an API as a standard set of tools that all developers can use. Many popular social networking sites provide developer's access to APIs to build tools to support those sites. The most obvious examples are Facebook and Twitter. Both have a robust API that provides developers with the ability to build plugins and work with data directly, without them being granted full access as a general security precaution.

As you will see with this chapter, providing your own API is not only fairly simple, but also it empowers you to provide your users with access to your data. You also have the added peace of mind knowing that you are in complete control...