Too Long; Didn't Read
API has become one of those catch-all terms that developers throw around without considering the context. An API is a way to programmatically interact with an application. It is a set of hooks that allow users to use the underlying functionality of the application in some way. The API surface of a framework or library is the number of APIs that exist within the framework. Learning an API is the first step in understanding what types of benefits it can offer your application. When we talk about web services, we normally mean web services.