A look at the many ways APIs can authorize access

After writing about so many APIs and having to figure out the auth process for each, I wanted to compare and contrast how some of these services approach authentication and authorization, and why they might’ve decided to do it the way they did.

  Jun 19, 2018 (rev. Sep 16, 2025) ·  11 min

What is an API wrapper?

When you find an API to use in your app, you’ll need to access it in a specific language - not always an easy or straightforward task. As long as you’re doing all that work, why keep it to yourself? Let’s look at creating an API wrapper that you can share with others!

  Jan 25, 2018 (rev. Sep 16, 2025) ·  5 min

What is an API?

An API is an Application Programming Interface, but what’s that really mean? In a more practical sense, it’s one programmer hiding the (possibly messy) details of their own code behind a nice veneer, in order to make it easier for another programmer to consume it in their own program.

  Jul 23, 2017 (rev. Sep 16, 2025) ·  6 min