Welcome to Unlocking Data

A Gentle Introduction to APIs

This is the workbook that accompanies the workshop Unlocking Data: A Gentle Introduction to APIs.

The workshop is designed for people with no programming experience who want to start working with APIs, particularly web APIs.

You can follow this workbook without installing any specific software. We’ve included interactive examples so you can practice alongside the workshop.

Although no programming knowledge is required, you can explore the code behind each example by clicking the Code button, as shown below:

Code 
hello = "Hello, world!"
hello
A few notes before we start

Although this workshop is about APIs in general, we will focus specifically on web APIs—particularly REST APIs that return JSON data. We’ve chosen this focus because REST APIs are the most common type of API and are also the most accessible without requiring specialized software.

Additionally, to keep things simple, we will not cover authentication. This means we will not be using API keys or tokens to access data.

Finally, we will only be working with GET requests, meaning we won’t be creating, updating, or deleting any data.

The workbook is divided into two main sections:

  1. Interacting with APIs: This section covers the basics—what APIs are, how they work, and how to use them.

  2. APIs for Data Analysis: This section focuses on APIs as data sources for research. It includes a lesson on collecting data via APIs and an example of how to analyze the collected data.

Additionally, we have included a catalog of APIs with descriptions, links to their documentation, and authentication requirements.

Each lesson can be followed independently, and the workbook will remain available even if you don’t attend the workshop.

Without further ado, let’s get started! 🚀