I have an English-language related question about how to properly label “API requests” in SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) products. I see that various websites label them sometimes as API queries or API requests or API calls, and some websites even mix these labels. But what is the correct labeling in English language in the Information Technology / SaaS world? The point is to make it clear to the user as most as possible and use the same labeling everywhere.
For example, I noticed a website writes this in the pricing page:
"Buy 100,000 API queries"But then it says this:
"The cost is $0.0002 per API request" "Limited to 1,000 API requests per day"To be honest, this can be confusing for some users, so why not write it using always the label “API requests”? For example I would have written it like this:
"Buy 100,000 API requests" "The cost is $0.0002 per API request" "Limited to 1,000 API requests per day"Is the above example that uses only the labeling “API requests” correct?
Shouldn’t the term “query/queries” be used only for search-related actions (i.e on Google)?
What label (API queries, API requests or API calls) would you use?
What’s the difference between using API queries/requests/calls?
Answer
Consider calling them API invocations.
invocation noun
3 (Computing) Cause (a procedure) to be carried out.
‘Can I use a Java application instead of a JSP (JavaServer Page) to invoke a servlet on an application server?’
– Lexico
Here are a couple of examples from the SaaS world (emphasis, mine):
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API Gateway resource policies are JSON policy documents that you attach to an API to control whether a specified principal (typically, an IAM user or role) can invoke the API.
– Chris Munns, AWS Compute Blog, Control access to your APIs using Amazon API Gateway resource policies -
The Open API is published as REST APIs, and can be invoked by any REST client.
– apppulse-help.saas.hpe.com, How to Use the Open API
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : user2972081 , Answer Author : Lawrence