Introduction to REST API

Get to know the key elements of working with REST APIs with a step-by-step example.

Get familiar with REST APIs on Langstack. By the end of this section, you will acquire a deeper understanding of REST APIs, their creation, and their deletion.

What is Langstack API?

• The API template is used to build an API (an application programming interface endpoint) to perform business user-defined logic.

• An API must have a base URL. A base URL is a text that is at the beginning of the URL, which consists of

  • the customer URL

  • The text dataapi

  • Group name for the API

  • API name

  • Path parameters

• An API receives and processes web requests and returns response data to the requester. Any API request must end up with a response; failing to respond for any reason will make this request invalid.

• Different operations can be executed through APIs. For example, users can:

  • Save data to and retrieve it from Entities,

  • Send data to and receive data from connected sources,

  • Combine and transform data from multiple sources and return everything as a single response.

• API documentation is automatically generated. Users can share documentation internally or make it publicly available on the Internet.

• An API can be used in multiple API gateways; however, one API gateway can use only one API at a time.