In 1942, a professor at Boston University penned a sci-fi novel that painted a picture of a world where humans and robots lived in co-existence. The author? Isaac Asimov and his book iRobot.
Asimov’s novel may have been an optimistic view of what the future would look like. After all, it’s been exactly 80 years since the novel first hit bookshelves.
However, technology is still decades, if not centuries, away from catching up to Asimov’s vision of robotics.
Even so, the novel did come up with a concept that can help our current progress with machine learning and automation—the law of robotics. Specifically, the second law states, “A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings.”
Automating software can be a challenging task. After all, programming software to complete tasks designed for human hands is easier said than done. But with the help of APIs, creating intelligent automation software is within reach.
How APIs Handle Automation
You can picture an API, or Application Programming Interface, as a “phone” of software.
Through it, 2 or more pieces of software can communicate and accomplish their tasks simultaneously.
APIs function across 3 different layers:
1. The UI – How users input commands to the software.
2. The response – Where code is exchanged to interpret the command.
3. The database – The final phase where the software receives the code and executes the command.
However, these days, APIs have evolved to require less user input to facilitate communication between different applications. And herein lies the key to automation.
Now, here are 4 tools you can use to build automation with your APIs.
#1 – Vatcheckapi
When handling business across several states in the EU, you’ll have to deal with different tax rates once products cross state borders.
Specifically, you’ll have to address the separate VAT (value-added tax) when ferrying various goods and services across the EU nations.
Manually looking up and applying each nation’s VAT rates is a hassle, to say the least. But with vatcheckapi, a job that can take hours when done manually is solved in mere minutes through automation.
With your VAT number and the country code for the state you’re dealing with, Vatcheckapi can automatically handle your VAT validation process.
On top of that, the API comes with a variety of benefits you won’t find from other API providers:
- Up-to-date data – Vatcheckapi validates data from credible and continuously updated sources, ensuring that VAT validation is always accurate.
- Unparalleled support – They ensure their customers never encounter difficulties using their product by providing a dedicated customer support program.
- Unlimited concurrency – Paid users get software integration across limitless applications.
Book a demo today for all your EU VAT validation needs.
#2 – APILayer
If you’re in the market for multiple API integrations, you can’t go wrong by working with APILayer.
Through their services, you get a stocked marketplace with all the latest and greatest APIs that can assist with automation.
Some of their available APIs include:
- Disposable Email Detection – This API can automate your mailing list cleanup. It analyzes your mailing list to find fake and throwaway emails and purges them from the lineup.
- Spam Check – This tool scans your email to find any SPAM or malicious emails, deletes them, and blocks the address from sending you future emails.
- Zenscrape API – A data lookup tool that can accumulate data across the internet without the risk of getting flagged as malicious.
- Filestack API – A tool that helps automate file uploads, transformation, and delivery into your app.
- Ipstack – An API for identifying user geolocation.
Through APILayer, you can find the perfect automation integrations for your software.
#3 – Delphi
Building software that can communicate across different devices and operating systems can be challenging for even the most adept developers.
But, communication between different devices can be automated with the help of Delphi.
When creating your software through Delphi, you’ll access benefits like:
- Cross-platform compatibility – Delphi allows app development that creates programs that are compatible throughout widely used operating systems such as:
- Windows
- iOS
- Android
- Linux
- High-def quality – Using Delphi for software creation enables developers to tailor their programs for the latest monitors with increased DPI (dots-per-inch) and 4k resolutions.
- Fast data access – Delphi has a robust connection to over 20 databases.
Use Delphi for easy API integration when planning your development tools.
#4 – WebTestIt
Next up, UI design is one of the more complex tasks when it comes to software development.
Between ensuring the interface looks pleasing and each element functions correctly, UI design has a lot of moving parts.
Thankfully, WebTestIt will offload part of the process so developers can focus on more critical tasks.
For example, through the WebTestIt API, developers can automate the web UI testing phase.
When working with the API, you’ll get handy features like:
- Robust compatibility – WebTestIt allows developers to conduct tests on Windows, iOS, Linux, and Android devices.
- Standard language support – The API supports all the popular coding languages like Java, Python, or Typescript.
- Efficient automation – WebTestIt automatically performs tests based on best practices.
Through the WebTestIt API, you can automate UI tests to allow your team to focus on the design aspect of UI creation.
APIs: Paving The Road Towards Automation
Asimov’s vision of the future is still a far-flung idealization of the world of tomorrow.
Concepts like flying cars and robot servants are probably a few decades away.
But that doesn’t mean that Asimov was just an optimist with his head in the clouds.
Technology has progressed far enough to offload some of the work we’d normally do manually.
With machine learning and automation, computers are starting to get smart enough to complete specific tasks.
With API integration, new applications can be built to incorporate automation into their programming.
All in all, APIs might be the breakthrough that brings us closer to the world of IRobot.
