====== Application Programming Interface (API) ======

[[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:start|Go up to Terms and Definitions]]

===== Discussion =====

An Application Programming Interface (API) provides an implementation interface through which software components, systems, services, applications, tools, or users request, provide, exchange, or control information or behavior.

In the FX Demo [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:r:reference_architecture|Reference Architecture]], API references usually identify implementation mechanisms that later profiles may select. Logical architecture terms such as [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:c:communication_endpoint|Communication Endpoint]], [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:f:financial_node|Node]], [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:d:data_structure_definition|Data Structure Definition]], and [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:d:data_structure_instance|Data Structure Instance]] do not prescribe an API.

An API can implement, expose, or support a logical communication pattern, but it does not define the logical meaning of the information exchanged.

===== Definition =====

//implementation interface through which software components, systems, services, or applications request, provide, exchange, or control information or behavior//

===== Source =====

Generalised from common software architecture usage and specialized for use in the FX Demo [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:r:reference_architecture|Reference Architecture]].

===== Note =====

An API is not a logical [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:c:communication_endpoint|Communication Endpoint]], [[dido:99_annexes:annex-b-terms-and-definitions:f:financial_node|Node]], data structure, runtime plane, or deployment artifact. An implementation profile may use an API to realize or expose those architectural elements.

===== Example =====

A later implementation profile may use a REST API to expose an FX Release Package, while the logical architecture continues to define the release interaction through the FX Release Package Endpoint.