Summary
In this chapter, we learned how the learning curve for no-code or low-code technologies is smaller than learning a programming language. You mainly need to learn how to use the GUI, which may take some hours or days, and almost all the functionality is done through clicks instead of code.
When we have systems that need to exchange pieces of information, but they don’t necessarily use the same data type or data structure, we create integrations to help translate this data. Using APIs is better for the developers who create or maintain the code, the developers who want to use a public API, and the companies behind them. APIs, as opposed to other systems, are loosely coupled, easier to maintain, discoverable, and reusable.
MuleSoft’s products three main products are Anypoint Platform, Anypoint Studio, and Composer. Anypoint Platform is a tool you can access from your browser to design, deploy, manage, secure, and monitor your APIs or applications. Anypoint Studio is the IDE you download and install on your local computer to develop and test your Mule applications. Finally, Composer is a no-code product that was created by mixing both Salesforce and MuleSoft to help you integrate your systems faster.
The whole reason for creating APIs in the first place is that it makes it easier to have an application network made of smaller pieces that we can connect as building blocks. We can reuse the functionality for different purposes, instead of having to create custom code with the same functionality.
MuleSoft believes in using the API-led connectivity approach as the architecture pattern to connect our APIs. We have the Experience, Process, and System layers, which will help us create specific APIs that can be reused and maintained more easily throughout the application network: the Experience layer for client application-facing functionality, the Process layer for orchestrating and processing the information, and the System layer for connecting to external services.
In the next chapter, we will expand our API knowledge from the basics to the technical aspects. We’ll review some best practices to design a better API specification and understand how exactly APIs connect with each other.
