Category: Useful APIs

In the software development world, practice makes perfect. Therefore, we should find as many ways to practice programming as possible. With free public APIs, we can practice programming by creating apps that use those APIs.

In this article, we’ll look at some practice project ideas that can use some of those APIs.

Anime

There are many APIs we can use to access anime data for free.

AniList

The AniList API lets us get anime data all in one place.

It provides us with GraphQL API.

Like most GraphQL APIs, it comes with a sandbox to let us try the API.

Data that this provides include studios, reviews, activities, site statistics, and more.

It also lets us change data like follows, likes, activities, and more.

Rate limiting and pagination is provided for large data sets.

And authentication is done via OAuth.

AnimeNewsNetwork

The AnimeNewsNetwork API lets us get the latest anime news with its API.

We can get data in HTML or XML format.

Data provided includes manga details, animes series data, ratings, and more.

There is a usage rate limit imposed on this API, but authentication isn’t required.

Jikan API

The Jikan API API is a REST API that lets us get various anime and manga data in our apps.

We can get detailed data including person, character, search, seasons, schedules, genres, producers, magazines, clubs, and more.

It has a REST API, and it has client libraries for many runtime environments.

Wrappers for PHP, Python Ruby, .Net, Node.js, TypeScrtipt, and more are written by individual contributors.

There’s a rate limit for accessing this API.

Kitsu API

The Kitsu API is another API that lets us get anime data.

The data that’s provided by this API is similar to the Jikan API.

Data provided includes anime, manga, categories, streamers, posts, characters, media, and more.

OAuth authentication is required to access its data.

MyAnimeList

The MyAnimeList API is another anime and manga database and community.

With it, we can get anime and manga data from it.

OAuth authentication is required to access its data.

Studio Ghibli API

We can use the Studio Ghibli API to get various kinds of data about Studio Ghibli films.

They include data about the films, the people involved, locations of the films, vehicles, and more.

OAuth authentication is required to access its data.

What Anime

The What Anime API lets us get specific details from anime images.

We can upload an image to the API to let it scan for details.

We upload the image as a base64 string and it’ll return the data from it.

It also returns images and video previews for us to view.

It has a rate limit and searches quota.

Conclusion

We can get anime and manga data from various free APIs on the Internet.

In the software development world, practice makes perfect. Therefore, we should find as many ways to practice programming as possible. With free public APIs, we can practice programming by creating apps that use those APIs.

In this article, we’ll look at some practice project ideas that can use some of those APIs.

Animal APIs

There are several APIs that let us get animal data.

Cat Facts

The Cat Facts API lets us get facts about cats.

No authentication is required. It doesn’t support CORS.

Cats API

Cats API is an API that lets us get cat pictures from Tumblr.

We can use it to get breeds, categories, images, and more.

An API key is required for authentication.

Dogs API

The Dogs API lets us get data from the Stanford Dogs Dataset.

Authentication isn’t required, and we can use it to get data like breeds and pictures.

HTTPCat

The HTTPCat API lets us get cat pictures from the API.

It returns responses with cat pictures with different response status codes.

IUCN Red List API

The IUCN Red List API lets us get data for various kinds of animals.

We can get species data, species category, names, species by country, and more.

Also, we can get threats of different species, habitats of different species, conservation measures, and other habitat data.

Conservation, plant growth, comprehensive groups, and more are also available.

An API token is required to use this API.

Movebank REST API

The Movebank REST API has movement and migration data for animals.

It provides us with endpoints that get us migration data, sensor types, description of entities, even data of sensors, and more.

It’s used to track the movement of animals.

Data access privileges can be controlled per user.

The data is available in CSV or JSON format.

Petfinder

The Petfinder API lets us get animals that are available to the client.

We can get animal types, single animal types, animal breeds, organizations, and more.

This API can be accessed with the client ID and client secret.

A Petfinder account is required.

PlaceGOAT

The PlaceGOAT API lets us get goat images for placeholders in our app.

We can use it to get images with different width and height.

Authentication isn’t required to access the API.

RandomCat

The RandomCat API gives us a URL for a random picture of a cat.

No authentication is required to access this API.

RandomDog

The RandomDog API gives us a URL for a random picture of a dog.

No authentication is required to access this API.

RandomFox

The RandomDog API gives us a URL for a random picture of a fox.

No authentication is required to access this API.

RescueGroups

The RescueGroups API lets us get pet adoption data with its API.

We can get data for various species, events, donations, sponsorships, locations, and more.

Authentication is required to access this API.

Shibe.Online

The Shibe.Online API lets us get a random picture of Shiba Inus, cats, or birds.

Authentication isn’t required to access this API.

Conclusion

There are many APIs we can use to get animal data and pictures.

In the software development world, practice makes perfect. Therefore, we should find as many ways to practice programming as possible.

With free public APIs, we can practice programming by creating apps that use those APIs.

In this article, we’ll look at some practice project ideas that can use some of those APIs.

Statistics Analysis App

The Time Door API is an API that lets us send data to its API and then it can do some basic statistical analysis for us.

Once we pass in some time-series data to it, it’ll return mean change strength, variance change strength.

Also, it detects anomalies, recurring patterns, how patterns change over time, check for critical transition points, and a lot more.

The Unplugg API is another API where we can send in our time series data and then it makes some forecasts about those values in the future.

It’s very simple and doesn’t have as much functionality as the Time Door API, so if we’re overwhelmed with the Time Door API, we can use this one instead.

They both require an API key for authentication, then we can use it as we please.

News App

There’re plenty of news organizations that provide their data via an API.

The Associated Press press provides its media and news metadata via its API.

Also, we can use it to get their election data. We just need an API key to get started.

Another API is the Feedbin API. It’s used to aggregate RSS feeds into one place.

We can manage all our RSS subscriptions with this API. Also, we can get more detailed user information like recently read entries, updated entries, pages, and more.

It requires OAuth for authentication so it’s great to learn how to add authentication with this.

The New York Times newspaper also has a useful API with news headlines and featured images provided for free.

It’s also free and provides us with lots of data about the news, books, media, and more.

For news articles, they only provide the headline, images, and metadata and not the content.

If we want the content, we can pay for the News API. It aggregates data from news sources from all over the world.

It also has a free tier with news headlines, features images, and metadata from new sources from all over the world.

However, we can pay to get access to the content as well. There aren’t that many API that let us access full content even for pay.

All we have to do is to sign up for an API key and then we can get started.

The Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom also has an API. We can access news content for free and we can get more if we pay.

Even if we don’t pay, we still get lots of content for free, which includes the text content of the news article.

If we pay for the API, then we get all the content instead of just the text.

Internet Time Machine App

Archive.org’s API always provides us with archives of old versions of lots of websites for free.

And with the API, we can build our own app to display the content our way.

Not only can we use it to get snapshots of old websites, but we can also use it to create new snapshots.

Also, we can use it to get book data like book covers, availability, and get information about book donations.

We can use it without authentication so that we can use it right away.

An App to Summarize the Content of the URL

The LinkPreview API is an API that provides a summary of the content that’s loaded by a given URL in JSON format.

It provides us with metadata of a page like a title, description, featured image, and URL.

To use it, we have to sign up for an API key.

Conclusion

News data is available everywhere. We can use APIs like The Guardian and News API to get full news data and create an app that uses that data to make our own news app.

Also, we can do statistical analysis with APIs easily with some time series analysis and forecast APIs.

In the software development world, practice makes perfect. Therefore, we should find as many ways to practice programming as possible.

With free public APIs, we can practice programming by creating apps that use those APIs.

In this article, we’ll look at some practice project ideas that can use some of those APIs.

Joke App

With the Chuck Norris Database API, we can make our own apps to display jokes about Chuck Norris.

We can display them however we like. We can display them randomly, get jokes by category, and whatever another way we can think of.

No authentication is required, so we can dig in without signing up.

Trivia Game

The Open Trivia API has a list of questions that are provided via their API. Each quest has both correct and incorrect answers.

Therefore, we can use it to make a trivia game app with ease. We can just display the questions and the choices and we can check against the answers that are listed.

No authentication is required, so we can dig in without signing up.

Donald Trump Quotes App

The Tronald Dump API provides us with what Donald Trump has said since he’s become a famous person.

There’re many ways to use them and display the quotes in entertaining ways.

No authentication is required, so we can dig in without signing up.

Comic App

With the xkcd API, we can get all the comics from xkcd without any effort.

We just have to make a request for each comic by ID and then we can display the comic provided as an image URL and the metadata in our own app.

No authentication is required, so we can dig in without signing up.

Bing Maps App

Bing Maps is a great resource for map data. We can use it to display maps, get geographies data, street view, routing information, location data, and much more.

It’s often overlooked since Google is the dominating maps provider, but Bing also provides tons of data for free or a low price.

To use the data, we have to sign up for an API key to gain access to it.

Google Maps App

Google Maps is the maps API that everyone thinks of when they look for a map API.

It also has free and paid tiers with much of the same information as provided by the Bing Maps API.

All we have to do is to sign up for an API key. However, do note that a credit card is required to sign up even for the free tier.

Coronavirus Tracker

The COVID-19 API has the latest data from John’s Hopkins University about the cases of the COVID-19 disease that’s been spreading for the last few months all over the world.

It has recorded data from the past and also the latest infection case data.

If we want to know when we can get out of the house again, then build an app with this and check the trends ourselves.

No authentication is required, so we can just start using it.

US Health Insurance App

The Healthcare.gov API has data about the American insurance marketplace that we can get in no time.

It’s all available as JSON so we can display them the way we like. It has education content like explaining what the insurance marketplace, so we can learn more from them.

Job Search App

Various job websites have provided their data via their API in addition to their regular website.

They include Github Jobs, GraphQL Jobs, Indeed, ZipRecruiter and more for jobs from any category, including the public and private sectors.

There’s plenty of data like description, name, location, and more. Also, we can search for them by keyword or location, which is very handy.

To gain access to them, we just have to sign up for an API key and then we can start playing with these APIs.

To make an app that lets us display and search for public sector jobs data, we can use the Search.gov Jobs API.

It has a full list of endpoints that we can call to gain access to federal jobs data, including searching by location, hiring paths, who qualify for which job, and more.

Conclusion

We can build lots of apps with free public APIs. They include job search apps, maps apps, and health info apps.

If we want some entertainment, we can also build apps that display and make a trivia game out of some trivial APIs.

In the software development world, practice makes perfect. Therefore, we should find as many ways to practice programming as possible.

With free public APIs, we can practice programming by creating apps that use those APIs. After writing the practice apps, we can even pay for some APIs and write even more useful apps.

In this article, we’ll look at some practice project ideas that can use some of those APIs.

Phone Number Validator

We can use the numverify API to verify phone numbers to make sure that they’re valid.

Now we won’t have to worry about calling phone numbers that might not be used by anyone.

It works with phone numbers from 232 countries and can give us the phone company and location that the phone number is located in.

Git App

The big Git hosts all provide their own APIs to let us automate tasks that are needed to be done with them like pulling and pushing code, merging code, etc.

There’s Bitbucket, GitHub, and Gitlab, which all let us do many Git operations with them.

They’re all very secure as authentication is done using OAuth and authorization is the same as using the UI to manipulate the Git repositories.

Website / RSS Aggregator

With the import.io API, we can aggregate data from various websites and RSS feeds and get them all from one source.

It supports CORS so we can access data right from our front end apps. An API key is required to use this API.

The data that’s aggregated with import.io is returned in JSON so that we can use the data right away.

We can use it to crawl websites and RSS feeds and extract data as we wish. Jobs can be run on the fly and also run on a scheduled basis by setting a schedule with the API.

An App to Find Technologies Use On Other Websites

Ever curious about what technologies on websites that we visit? We can use the Let’s Validate API to create an app that reveals the technologies that are used on websites of our choice.

It doesn’t require any authentication so that we can use them right away.

API Testing App

We can use the Postman API to make our own requests to APIs with ease. It lets us write programs to script the testing of APIs by using the Postman API.

The Postman API can be used to send query strings, headers, and get response bodies and headers.

Dictionary App

With various APIs, we can create our own dictionary app with various dictionary APIs.

There’s the Merriam-Webster API, Oxford dictionary API, Wordnik API, and the Words API.

They’re all available for free as long we limit our queries and sign up for an API key to use them.

They provide definitions of words, pronunciations, word types, and more data.

In the case of the Words API, it also provides synonyms for words. The Oxford dictionary API also has a thesaurus, translations for words, sentences API to get us example sentences for a given word, and more.

If we pay, then we get access to more things like more API requests a day

File Conversion App

The Cloudmersive Document and Data Conversion app lets us write the programs to use the API to convert data between various formats.

They include converting between common formats like HTML, Office files, or photo files to PDF.

We can also use it to merge multiple Office documents into one.

Other data formats that the API can convert include CSV to JSON and XML to JSON.

Cloudmersive also makes other APIs like email validation APIs, natural language processing APIs, OCR APIs, barcode scanning APIs and more.

It can take images and then parse them into readable text with the OCR API. The barcode scanner API takes images of the barcode and returns the data from the barcode.

Conclusion

There’re lots of APIs that we can use to do various things like converting files, barcode scanning, OCR, and more.

We can also use APIs to automate Git operations like pushing, fetching, and pulling code from to and from repos.

Finally, we can validate data like phone numbers with various APIs.