Difference between API and Web scraping
API, which stands for (Application Programming Interface) and Web scraping, are both the methods of fetching data from the internet, but each of them has its own method of operation. So in this article, we will be talking about the difference between API and web scraping.
What is an API
An API is just like a messenger that is used to take your request, send it to the correct website and get back the result right to you, they help in transfer of data between different computer programs. So it’s just like a middleman that connects you to the right resources that you need on the internet.
It works by receiving a request from an application, then process it and then contact the requested system and get the request, then send it back to the initial application that made the request.
Also, it can be integrated into your website through coding using either JavaScript, Python etch. First, you identify and select the API you need (e.g. Google map APIs), if it requires key for authentication, then you get the API key from the API provider. Then use any programming language of your choice to construct the request.
Type of APIs
They are many type of APIs, but will be listing a few of them.
- SOAP APIs: They are mostly used for exchanging organized information, and it has strong security, hence they are used for business.
- REST APIs: This is the common type of API that uses HTTPS request (POST, GET etc.) to fetch data.
- GraphQL APIs: They are used by client to allow client to request for data on the internet.
- Database APIs: They are used in interacting with the database.
What API is used for
It can be used for different purposes, among which are;
- It can be used in weather apps for getting weather data from a weather service
- It can be used in e-commerce app or website, to facilitate online payments and to allow access to search results
- It can enable developers to access social media data such as users profile, tweets, trends etc
- It can be used to integrate Google Maps into some application.
So having known what an API is and it’s uses, let’s look at what a web scraping is.
Web Scraping
Web scraping just like an API is the process of e obtaining information from websites, like product prices, weather information, news etc.
It can be incorporated into a website using some pythons libraries like Beautiful Soap, selenium, and other tools like Parse Hub. First, you have to determine the website you want to scrape, then find the website HTML.
Then write a web scraping script using any of the above-mentioned tools of your choice to download the HTML and extract it, then format the elements you extracted into JSON or other usable format.
Difference between API and Web Scraping in extracting data
- API is faster than Web Scraping in terms of speed
- API is really simple to integrate, while Web Scraping can be more complex
- APIs data source is directly from the server while Web scraping data source is from the HTML of the website
- API returns data in a structured format like (JSON or XML etc.) while Web scraping returns data in an unstructured format
- API is legal to use because it’s governed by terms and condition, while legal issues can occur while using web scraping if it’s not implemented carefully.
So in general, APIs are often preferred to Web Scraping once it’s available, web scraping is just like an option.
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