React: Week 5 Glossary

• MDN – Fetch API

HTTP, the HyperText Transfer Protocol, is the underlying application layer protocol of the Web. It is the protocol that governs communication between web browsers and servers.

• MDN – HTTP

JSON, JavaScript Object Notation, is a text file format type that closely resembles JavaScript and can be easily converted to and from JavaScript. It is most often used for data transfer with RESTful web services.

• MDN – JSON
• JSON.org

JavaScript promises are a way to handle asynchronous operations. Calls to the Fetch API will return a promise object.

• MDN – Using promises

The react-scripts library is installed as a dependency by create-react-app and includes several useful scripts, including the start and build scripts.

• react-scripts

REST is an abbreviation for REpresentational State Transfer, and it is an architectural style for creating Web services that defines a set of constraints for how computer systems connected to the internet can communicate with each other.

• RestfulAPi.net – What Is Rest

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. It is an older approach than REST to creating Web APIs, and is a full-fledged protocol unlike REST, which is an architectural style. SOAP only accepts XML as its message format.

• W3Schools – SOAP

A common concept in functional programming, a thunk is a function wrapped around another function in order to delay its execution until a later time. The redux-thunk library makes use of this strategy to insert asynchronous API calls (such as to the Fetch API) inside an action creator function.

• Thunks in Redux – The Basics

• Webpack

XML stands for eXtensible Markup Language. It is a text file format similar in structure to HTML, using start and close tags. It is most often used for data transfer with SOAP web services.

• W3Schools – XML
• MDN – XML