Learning about APIs :)

[samanthacsik]

Needed a place to job down random things; need to organize better soom.

{httr2} package

HTTP protocol: there's a url that specifies the location + there can then be query parameters, which are designated by a ? + anything that follows

E.g. UC Census Bureau (not a very nicely-documented API...)
api.census.gov/data/2021/pep/population?get=DENSITY_2021,POP_2021,NAME,STATE&for=region:*&key=YOUR_KEY

• api.census.gov/data/2021/pep/population: API endpoint, which correesponds to a resource that a server knows how to provide back; in this case, that resource is the 2021 pop estimate
• ?get=DENSITY_2021,POP_2021,NAME,STATE&for=region:*&key=YOUR_KEY: this is the query string that contains all of the parameters (variables) that are being passed in this example API call that affect the output of the request
• get, for, key: all accepted query string parameters
• get accepts a list of strings, for accepts a string, and key is your API key