A dive into APIs (with Amazon S3)

This 6-part series starts with a non-technical explanation of what an API is. Today diverse systems share information using API.

S3 stands for Simple Storage Service and is a service that allows Amazon customers to store any type of file. Netflix uses an S3 to store the movies they stream, while Siemens has an S3 that accumulates operational data on which their cybersecurity teams perform forensic analysis. Ryanair and Nasdaq use S3 to backup their data.

What is an API?

The GUI

The 2nd part looks at how the GUI can be used to perform actions. We focus on using AWS’s S3 console to create an S3 bucket in the eu-west-3 region.

The GUI translates form data into the API construct. The user does not see what is happening in the background. GUIs are easier to understand but difficult to document since forms can change.

SDK

The third part looks at how functions that can be performed using the GUI can be made available within a package that can be invoked within a supported development language. SDKs extend the reach developers have, vis-à-vis the ability to make their software perform more functions and manage the scope and capabilities of their solutions.

PowerShell

Here we create a bucket in the eu-west-3 region using PowerShell. PowerShell (PS) is a scripting language available on Windows, Linux and Mac platforms and is not bound to any development environment. The benefits of using an OS scripting language over SDKs is discussed.

PowerShell is not the only scripting language. For example, Bash is popular in Linux environments.

AWS CloudShell

The penultimate part creates a bucket in the Paris region using AWS’s built in web-based scripting terminal, CloudShell. CloudShell is the environment not the scripting langauge. Through CloudShell the user can select the scripting enviornment. PowerShell is one of the available options. Even though the environment is on the cloud, the scripts can be downloaded.

Low-Level API using Postman

The final part uses Postman to create a bucket on AWS S3. The Postman call is low-level compared to the other methods discussed in this series. We discuss why, when, and how to invoke the method.