The Difference Between Apps and APIs
An app (computer application) is a self-contained software program that performs specific tasks for a user. Apps have a user interface (UI) that allows direct interaction. They run on phones and/or desktop computers and can be used by people without programming skills.
An API (Application Programming Interface) defines how one piece of software interacts with another software without needing to understand the internal workings of that other software. APIs are used by people with programming skills. They do not have a UI because they are not meant for direct user interaction.
Biodiversity Apps
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A phone app for sharing images. Automatically records date, time, and location but allows inclusion of additional notes.
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xeno-canto is a website dedicated to sharing wildlife sounds from all over the world. It records location, date, and time. One can add extra notes. Date are harvested by GBIF.
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GeoCAT is a browser based tool that performs rapid geospatial analysis for Red List assessment. It uses spatially referenced primary occurrence data and focuses on two aspects of the geographic range of a taxon important to conservation assessment: the extent of occurrence (EOO) and the area of occupancy (AOO).
Biodiversity APIs
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The GBIF API provides a programmatic way to query and publish data on GBIF.org. It can be designed to make advanced queries, include the results of GBIF queries in scripts, workflows or analyses, or embed GBIF data into other websites. The GBIF API is RESTful and most queries return data in JSON format. The link is to a page with general advice on using the API, including clients in R, Python and Java.
