API(API)
Website and technology
Website and technology
An API is an agreed way for two systems to exchange data, for example your webshop passing orders to your accounting software.
You request or send data according to fixed rules, without either system needing to know the other's internals. Nearly every modern integration runs this way.
With integrations, watch limits (requests per minute), error handling and what happens when a system is briefly offline. That's where things break in practice, not on the happy path.
Related terms
- HeadlessHeadless means the system where you manage content or products is separate from the layer that displays it; the two talk through an API.
- WebhookA webhook is an automatic message one system sends another the moment something happens, for example 'an order was just placed'.
- CRMA CRM is the system where you keep customers, contacts, deals and all communication, so everyone sees the same state of play.