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Glossary

Metadata is “data that provides information about other data”,[1] but not the content of the data, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: 

  • Descriptive metadata — the descriptive information about a resource. It is used for discovery and identification. It includes elements such as title, abstract, author, and keywords. 
  • Structural metadata — metadata about containers of data and indicates how compound objects are put together, for example, how pages are ordered to form chapters. It describes the types, versions, relationships and other characteristics of digital materials.[2] 
  • Administrative metadata[3] — the information to help manage a resource, like resource type, permissions, and when and how it was created.[4] 
  • Reference metadata — the information about the contents and quality of statistical data. 
  • Statistical metadata,[5] also called process data, may describe processes that collect, process, or produce statistical data.[6] 
  • Legal metadata — provides information about the creator, copyright holder, and public licensing, if provided. 

The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software, and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communications networks 

A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods, voice activation methods and sensors to collect specific data. Information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in return, that data is used to improve operations across the city. This includes data collected from citizens, devices, buildings and assets that is processed and analyzed to monitor and manage traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities, water supply networks, waste, crime detection,[1]information systems, schools, libraries, hospitals, and other community services.[2][3] Smart cities are defined as smart both in the ways in which their governments harness technology as well as in how they monitor, analyze, plan, and govern the city. 

A smart device is an electronic device, generally connected to other devices or networks via different wireless protocols such as Bluetooth, Zigbee, NFC, Wi-Fi, LiFi, 5G, etc., that can operate to some extent interactively and autonomously. Several notable types of smart devices are smartphones, smart cars, smart thermostats, smart doorbells, smart locks, smart refrigerators, phablets and tablets, smartwatches, smart bands, smart key chains, smartglasses, and many others. The term can also refer to a device that exhibits some properties of ubiquitous computing, including—although not necessarily—Machine learning. Smart devices can be designed to support a variety of form factors, a range of properties pertaining to ubiquitous computing and to be used in three main system environments: physical world, human-centered environments and distributed computing environments. Smart Homes indicate the presence of sensors and some detection devices, appliances and a database to control them. 

Artificial Intelligence(AI) can identify data types, find possible connections among datasets, and recognize knowledge using natural language processing. It can be used to automate and accelerate data preparation tasks, including the generation of data models, and assist in data exploration. 

Machine learning(ML) is the study of computeralgorithmsthat can improve automatically through experience and by the use of data.[1]It is seen as a part ofartificial intelligence. Machine learning algorithms build a model based on sample data, known astraining data, in order to make predictions or decisions without being explicitly programmed to do so.[2]Machine learning algorithms are used in a wide variety of applications, such as in medicine,email filtering,speech recognition, andcomputer vision, where it is difficult or unfeasible to develop conventional algorithms to perform the needed tasks.[3] 

Real-time data (RTD) is information that is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the timeliness of the information provided. Real-time data is often used for navigation or tracking.[1] Such data is usually processed using real-time computing although it can also be stored for later or off-line data analysis 

Access Tokensprovide the authorization necessary to allow client applications to call APIs that they are subscribed to. 

API (Application Programming Interfaces) enable secure access to enterprise data assets and processes. They are usually in the form of REST or SOAP web services. APIs are the building blocks for app creation integrations. 

The API call is simply the process of sending a request to your API after setting up the right endpoints. Upon receiving your information, it is processed, and you receive feedback. By entering your login and password into a website and hitting ‘enter,’ you made an API call. 

The API economy is just another term to describe the exchange of value between a user and an organization. The API economy enables businesses to leverage APIs from other providers such as Google to power their own apps, allowing an ecosystem that makes it possible for users to get value from a platform without having to build the APIs, like Uber does when it uses API calls to connect with Google Maps. 

An endpoint is the end of a communication channel. When APIs interact with other systems, each touchpoint of interaction is considered an endpoint. For example, an API endpoint could include a server, a service, or a database where a resource lives. API endpoints specify where resources live and who can access them. 

An API gateway is an API management tool that serves as an intermediary between the client and a set of different backend services. API gateways act as gatekeepers and proxies that moderate all your API calls, aggregate the data you need, and return the correct result. Gateways are used to handle common tasks such as API identification, rate limiting, and usage metrics. 

In simple terms, API integration connects two or more applications to exchange data between them and connect to the outside world. 

An API key is a unique identifier that enables other software to authenticate user, developer, or API calling software to an API to ensure that this person or software is who it says it is. API keys authenticate the API instead of a user and offer a certain degree of security to API calls. 

The API lifecycle is an approach to API management and development that aims at providing a holistic view of how to manage APIs across its different life stages, from creation to retirement. The API lifecycle is often divided into three stages, the creation stage, the control stage, and the consumption stage. 

An API layer is a proxy that joins together all your service offerings using a graphic UI to provide greater user interactivity. API layers are language-agnostic ways of interacting with apps and help describe the services and data types used to exchange information 

 An API portal is a bridge between the API provider and the API consumer. An API portal provides information about the APIs at every stage of the API lifecycle. API portals serve to make APIs public and offer content to educate developers about them, their use, and how to make the most of them. 

APIs are everywhere and are part of every aspect of the web. An API request happens when a developer adds an endpoint to a URL and uses that endpoint to call the server or the database. 

The ubiquitous nature of APIs makes them one of the favorite targets for hackers. API security is an umbrella term that defines a set of practices that aim to prevent malicious attacks, misuse, and exploit APIs. API security includes basic authentication and authorization, tokens, multi-factor authentication, and other advanced security measures. 

The term application gets thrown around a lot these days. Application software is commonly defined as a program or a bundle of different programs designed for end-users. Every program can be called an application, and often the terms are used interchangeably. 

A client is a device that communicates with a server. A client can be a desktop computer, a laptop, a smartphone, or an IoT-powered device. Most networks allow communication between clients and servers as it flows through a router or switch. 

Client Applications are the apps that developers build. When these applications call APIs from the API Directory, they are considered a client application of the API Directory. 

Consumer Key and Secret are credentials associated with the client application. The Consumer Key and Secret are used to generate an Access Token, which is needed to make calls to APIs that the application is subscribed to 

An external API is designed to be accessed by the outside public. Unlike internal APIs, APIs are consumed by external developers outside of the company. External APIs represent a secure way of sharing information and content outside a company. 

OAuth (Open Authorization) is an open standard for token-based authentication and authorization on the web. There are two types of OAuth, 2-legged, which authenticates the client application, and 3-legged, which authenticates the client application and the end user. Currently, all of our APIs support 2-legged Oauth. 3-legged support will be coming soon. 

Parameters are special types of variables used in computer programming to pass information between procedures and functions. An argument to a function is referred to as a parameter. Adding three numbers, for example, may require three parameters. 

Properties are name value pairs that can be used in the API functionality. API developers can define a different value for the same property in different environments like sandbox/test/production. The actual value will be used at runtime in the environment the client is consuming the API. Eg: endPointUrl is a property that can be used to define the actual API backend url that will be used in each environment at runtime. 

Paths are the resource URLs the API developers choose to expose their API. Each path can have a GET/PUT/POST/DELETE http action defined. Paths can have defined parameters. The parameters can be specified as required/optional and as Query/Path/header parameters as well. API developers can also specify the default values of the parameters. 

Tags are metadata information about the API which will be very helpful when the API is published. Tags can be used for the consumers to search for the API. If the consumer searches by a tag that is defined within the API, the API will be displayed in the search results. We can have multiple tags defined for an API. 

Throttling limits the number of requests an application can make to an API. Most of the APIs found in the API directory are limited to 200 calls per minute. 

A webhook (also called a web callback or HTTP push API) is a way for an app to provide other applications with real-time information. Webhooks deliver data directly to other applications, so data is available immediately instead of standard APIs requiring frequent polling for real-time data. Webhooks are beneficial to both consumers and providers in this way, but the only drawback is the difficulty of setting them up at first. 

 

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