Introduction to JSON and RESTful APIs (coding bootcamp series)

If you read my last article, you know that I just entered a new phase in my bootcamping journey at Green Fox (if you didn’t, you can read it here). I entered the project phase. What does this mean? That the students were divided into groups and are now working in a project together, in order to develop a software product.

I am in a back-end Spring project, developing a product that will help Green Fox manage its employees’ progression. Since Green Fox is a holacratic institution, the system is more complex than the traditional one: there are badges for different skills and each employee can claim new badges, that should then be approved (or rejected) by the peers.

Now, our daily routine is different from before. We are not given materials to learn; instead, we have stories to work on and we are supposed to find the materials ourselves and try to implement them in our project. The group also has the help of a mentor for about an hour each day — similar to a real working environment, as we have been told.

But, since the project is still in its early phase, today I would like to write about something we learnt at the end of the Orientation phase (the one just before the project) and that we will use heavily during this project: JSON format and RESTful APIs.

What is JSON?

JSON stands for JavaScript Object Notation and it is a completely language-independent text format that is mainly used to transmit data…