Overview

Web applications can be incredibly powerful because of their connection to the internet. In this module, we'll learn how to utilize data and functionality from third-party web services called Application Programming Interfaces (or "APIs") to enhance our own applications. We'll also learn how to handle these "fetch requests" using asynchronous JavaScript.

In this module, we'll learn about:

• Blocking/Synchronous Code — also known as "synchronous code", blocking code must finish executing before the next line of code can run.

• Non-blocking/Asynchronous Code — also known as "asynchronous code", non-blocking code can begin a process that may take time but does not require that process to complete before letting the next line of code to run.

• Promise — an object that represents the eventual completion of an asynchronous action and contains methods for handling the completion of that action.

• fetch() — a function that sends an HTTP request to an API to create, get (read), update, or delete data managed by that API.

• API (Application Programming Interface) — a web service that manages a set (or sets) of data and provides access to that data through specific endpoints.

• Endpoint — a URL address that a client can send HTTP requests to in order to interact with a portion of an API.

• Catching Errors — the process of preventing known and expected errors from crashing a program.