What is an API?

An API (Application programming interface) is a set of routines, protocols and tools for building software and applications. An API expresses a software component in terms of its operations, inputs, outputs, and underlying types, defining functionalities that are independent of their respective implementations, which allows definitions and implementations to vary without compromising the interface.

It sounds complicated, but well worth understanding, as it provides an extremely powerful tool for your bot.

The practice of publishing APIs has allowed web communities to create an open architecture for sharing content and data between communities and applications. In this way, content that is created in one place can be dynamically posted and updated in multiple locations on the web. Or in our case, right in your bot!

Photos can be shared from various image sites. Content can be embedded and dynamically posted. Sharing live comments made on Twitter with a Facebook account, for example, is enabled by their APIs.

Basically, by using a specific API in your bot, you could access a wide range of external databases, e.g.: a massive food recipe database, and customize all the available bits and pieces to suit your bot needs.

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