Empower yourself by learning how to work with APIs without code

APIs are incredibly powerful. Up until recently, they’ve mostly been reserved for engineers who wanted to take the time to write code to connect to them.

I’m going to teach you how to use them quickly and efficiently — no code required. At the end of this guide, you’ll be supercharging your workflows with APIs without needing to rely on anyone else!

We’re going to be using the API for Slash the API dog throughout this guide.

Step 1 — Decide what API you need

What information are you looking for or do you want to change?

Are you trying to grab all of @dougthepug’s Instagram posts? Maybe you want to automatically tweet at anyone who follows your dog’s twitter (because even though dogs can’t speak, they have a lot to say).

If you’re trying to find data, but aren’t sure where to start, Google is your friend. Search for “[stuff you’re interested in] API” and see what comes up.

Step 2 — Find the API docs

APIs provided by well-known companies should have thorough documentation on how to use them. To find these, google “[Insert Company] API documentation” or “[Insert Company] developer”.

The results should take you to the developer portal. Look for a link that says “Docs”, “Documentation”, “Reference” or “Technical Reference”.

Here is Slash the API dog’s documentation.

Step 3 — Find the endpoint

The first thing to look for is the appropriate endpoint(s). There should be one endpoint corresponding to each type of data you want. An endpoint could look like this: https://slashtheapidog.com/api/bones/{id} or just /bones.

The documentation should have a list of endpoints. They may be top level in the docs or under a section called "reference", "endpoints", or "methods".

To find the right endpoint, look for the name that corresponds with the data you're looking for. If you want a list of all the holes Slash has dug, /holes is probably the right one. Each endpoint should have a description to help explain what it does.

Step 4 — Determine your request type

Now that you’ve found the right endpoint, you need to determine the type of request to send it.

There are 4 different types of requests:

GET
A GET request is how you ask the API to respond with something that it has, most often data. You can ask for specific information about one item or a group of items based on the endpoint and parameters. This is the equivalent of asking Slash to bring you one of his bones or all of his bones.

Slash likes POST requests the best

POST
A POST request is how you tell the API to create something new. This is similar to asking Slash to dig (create) a new hole for you.

PUT
A PUT request is how you tell the API to update something that was previously created. This is similar to asking Slash to dig deeper (update) into the hole he dug.

DELETE
A DELETE request is how you tell the API to delete something that was previously created. This is similar to asking Slash to cover up (delete) a hole he previously dug.

Step 5 — Understand the parameters

Many requests require additional parameters. Parameters are the details of your request. For example, if you want Slash to create a new hole, you need to tell him where to put it and how deep to dig.

The API documentation you are referencing should have a section called “Parameters” or “Options” for each endpoint and request type.

Slash’s API parameters might look something like this for retrieving balls: GET https://slashtheapidog.com/api/balls

Step 6 — Format your request

We’ve got all the information we need, now we just need to make the request!

Here are two different ways to connect to an API that require no code. Let’s connect to Slash’s API to get his list of balls by making a GET request to https://slashtheapidog.com/api/balls

Parabola — if you want to connect to and work with data without code

Parabola is a web app that allows you to easily connect to APIs and then work with the data through a visual, drag-and-drop tool.

Check out the example Parabola flow Slash built to work with his API: GET Slash’s List of Balls

1. Create a free account at https://parabola.io.
2. Create your first flow.
3. Find the API Import source and drag it onto your screen.
4. Double-click the API Import to change its settings.
5. Enter the endpoint you want to use, in this case: https://slashtheapidog.com/api/balls
6. Hit “Update Settings” and Parabola will make the GET request! You should see the response data show up in the area to the right of the settings.

Results from the GET request to Slash’s API /balls in Parabola

Postman — if you want to test API requests and don’t need to do much with the data

Postman is an app for documenting and testing APIs.

1. Download postman: https://www.getpostman.com/downloads/.
2. Create new request.
3. Pick the request type, in this case: GET.
4. Enter your endpoint URL, in this case: https://slashtheapidog.com/api/balls
5. Hit Send.
6. Your response will show up in the Response section at the bottom.

Results from the GET request to Slash’s API /balls in Postman

Step 7 — Use the data

Now that you have some data (GET) or have been able to make the API take an action (POST, PUT, or DELETE) you will likely want to do something with the data. The true power of APIs comes from the way that you work with them.

Being able to ask Slash to fetch a bone for us once is great and we certainly want to play with him. But imagine Slash has hundreds of bones and our goal is to safely bury and log all of his bones. To do that efficiently, we’d need to chain actions together.

This is just one example, but hopefully you can start to understand the impact of being able to programmatically work with APIs to build more complex chains of actions and data. This can be done in code or using a tool like the ones described above.

Hope you found this guide helpful as an intro to working with APIs without any code. I’m excited to see what you build. If you’ve got a minute, tweet at me or reply here and let me know!

The full version of the step by step guide above lives at WorkWithAPIs.com — check it out there for a more detailed walk-through as well was important API terminology you should know. Huge hat tip to the hard work that went into creating the guide, specifically from Alex Yaseen and Michelle Cunningham.

This story is published in The Startup, Medium’s largest entrepreneurship publication followed by +424,678 people.

Subscribe to receive our top stories here.