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does listing application program interface means listing all the properties in the project ?? Web Service endpoint and API endpoint are more or less the same?

Arun Prasad
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    Consider reading http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7440379/what-exactly-is-the-meaning-of-an-api and related links... This may help you narrow down your question which currently is too broad/personal choice... – Alexei Levenkov Sep 11 '14 at 04:59

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does listing application program interface means listing all the properties in the project ??

API is a list of software components and their definitions that are shared/opened for any other consumers (other software components, web clients etc.) So for C# API is list of members (classes, methods and their signatures, properties etc) that can be used to cooperate with the system.

Web Service endpoint and API endpoint are more or less the same?

It is not always the same. API is a general term. It is something that allows someone to work with the system. But in context of web services and REST - it is the same.

ntl
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    Side note: second half of you answer contradicts the first one - having webservice endpoint for sole reason to provide support for pages of your web site does not make this web service API.... – Alexei Levenkov Sep 11 '14 at 05:03
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Generally speaking that service technology has been emerging and the current trend has been Web Services and now REST.

Why you use it ? It is because Let say you have a function can PrintFile() and you want me to use it from my machine, you need a way to tell me how to connect with it. so that means, the function code is with your machine, and my machine can call with some parameters. That is why we need these technologies. There has been many technologies like DCOM, ASMX , SVC, REST. I have given a comparison below.

COM Limitation: COM should be packaged along with the program. COM is accessible for only specific programming langugage, which means C++ dll is not directly accessible to Java.

DCOM Limitation: A proxy needs to be installed on local machine. Again a compatiblity issue, permission headache.

ASMX Web service that is accessible through HTTP protocal and the client only needs to know how to call through a proxy that uses SOAP as a message protocol.

SVC Client still needs to have a knowledge to interpret SOAP.

Why Web service era is drying… Web service calls require a standard to be followed such as SOAP. Not all devices knows about these standards. This adds a complexity to provide a library at client level that can communicate in SOAP message format and web service can be connected. In case of REST WebApi it uses http. Thus, it has less overhead as compare to previous technology. Now what it means to your coding that your functions are available as is from Mobile to a Desktop. All you need is HTTP to call, which is available even in 20 $ mobile phones.

Thus, you should use WEBAPI technology to provide your function so that I can call your method from my machine.

Hope it helps you.

codebased
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