Hello again! We’re delighted to announce that we have just launched the DataBadger Application Programming Interface (API).
Ok, probably not the most exciting news for most. After all, what have APIs ever done for you? The answer is; probably more than you can imagine. By itself, an API doesn’t really do anything – it is a tool which allows developers to access functionality in another system, often with well defined structure.
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Have you been on a website with an embedded Google Map? Paid for a purchase using the Paypal Checkout button? Have you watched a YouTube video via another website like a blog or recipe post? Ahhh, so you really are familiar with APIs.
APIs power a mind boggling amount of the functionality on web-sites, systems, and software in our world – often without us being aware. We don’t notice because this constant exchange of data is smooth and seamless, as all great technology should be.
The API is really a middle-man piece of software which lives in-between your device or web browser and some functionality you wish to access. Rather than have every programmer understand all the nitty-gritty detail of how YouTube works, or expose their code to potential hackers, YouTube exposes a small amount of functional tools. A developer need only learn how to talk to a code interface, which is written in a universal way, allowing these blocks to build powerful systems. The API allows more functionality to be built with less effort on the part of the developer.
The DataBadger API
One of our fundamental aims at DataBadger is to minimise the work and effort associated with developing distributed data acquisition and control systems. Therefore, it makes sense that we would have our own API – turning system development in to a pure software development endeavour.
The DataBadger API comes in the form of a couple of Dynamic link Libraries (dll). These can be easily added to a Microsoft Visual Studio C# project and allow the developer to start communicating with any DataBadger device using a few lines of code. We’ve even added example code to our applications page, meaning you can run and edit the code shown below.
Our API is part of a growing ecosystem of data loggers, control units, and software solutions. We aim to help everybody collect great data more easily. Though, of course, you don’t need an API to use our devices. We offer the BadgerView application to log data from, and control, our devices – as well as a software development manual, if you really want to code your own comms. There are many ways to access the data you need.
If you would like more information, you can reach us via our contact page, which also provides an email address and phone number. If you don’t see what you need on our website, we offer bespoke development and product tailoring as well.
Happy Developing!