What is an API?

Santosh Updated by Santosh

APIs, integration, automation are all buzzwords you’ll hear at any trade shows you visit this year. 

At the surface, it all sounds great.

Hey I get to work less, and have my computer do more work for me. 

But we've found that to us non-developers it can be confusing to sort out.

So let’s try to make it easy to understand.

Technical term = Application Programming Interface

English = Channel for applications to talk to each other

What is an API?

APIs make it possible for different applications to communicate with each other very easily. While the technical term is Application Programming Interface, it really just means that APIs are a standard way for different apps to exchange data.

What are some typical use cases?

  • Sending invoices from shopVOX to Quickbooks
  • Sending contact information from your CRM to your accounting program
  • Adding contacts from your CRM to your email marketing platform
  • Creating orders from online shopping cart to your accounting program

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What's next?

Now that you know what an API is, learn the details of how APIs work.

How helpful was this doc?

Where can my get my shopVOX API credentials?

Can the shopVOX API accept tracking numbers on shipped orders?

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