What are the types of APIs in Salesforce?

Asked 25-Jan-2018
Viewed 635 times

1 Answer


1

Salesforce provides programmatic access for our organization’s information, by using simple, powerful, and secure application programming interfaces.

We have listed the different types of Salesforce APIs below:

REST API: This API is used to Access Objects of our Salesforce organization. This is an ideal API for developing mobile applications or external clients.

SOAP API: This API is used to integrate Force.com applications that can create, retrieve, update and delete records which are managed by Salesforce, Force.com, and Database.com. And the records are Accounts, Leads, and custom objects.

Tooling API: This API is used to build custom development tools for force.com applications. It is designed to support the entire development lifecycle, including design, implementation, deployment, and maintenance.

Bulk API: This API is useful for handling a large number of records. We can use it to query, insert, update, upsert, and delete a large number of records asynchronously by submitting batches that Salesforce processes in the background.

Metadata API: This API is used to manage build tools and manage customizations. It provides a powerful mechanism for controlling logic, presentation, and configuration information for Force.com applications.

Streaming API: This API provides a stream of data reflecting data changes in our Salesforce organization. This API exposes a near real-time stream of data from the Force.com platform.

Chatter REST API: This API is used to integrate mobile apps, intranet sites and third-party web applications with Salesforce. And also it is used to display Salesforce data, especially in mobile applications. Chatter Rest API is similar to APIs offered by other companies with feeds, like Facebook and Twitter.

Wave Analytics REST API: This API is used to access Wave analytics datasets programmatically by using this API.

Apex REST API: This API is used to build our own REST API in APEX and it exposes Apex Classes as RESTful web services. It is simple and lightweight API to access Force.com data by using standard OAuth, together with a choice of data flavors – XML and JSON. It is configured to suit the basic CRUD operations of data management.

Apex SOAP API: This API is used for creating custom SOAP web service, and it exposes Apex Classes as SOAP web service.


User Permissions Needed:

API Name

Protocol

Data Format

Communication

REST APIREST JSON, XMLSynchronous
SOAP APISOAP (WSDL)XML Synchronous
Chatter REST APIREST JSON, XMLSynchronous (photos are processed asynchronously)
Analytics REST APIREST  JSON, XMLSynchronous
Bulk APIREST CSV, JSON, XMLAsynchronous
Metadata APISOAP (WSDL)XML Asynchronous
Streaming API BayeuxJSON Asynchronous (stream of data)
Apex REST APIRESTJSON, XML, CustomSynchronous
Apex SOAP APISOAP (WSDL)XML Synchronous
Tooling APIREST or SOAP (WSDL)JSON, XML, CustomSynchronous