Brad Jorsch (Anomie) wrote:
When api.php was basically the only API in MediaWiki, calling it "the API" worked well. But now we've got a Parsoid API, Gabriel's work on a REST content API, Gabriel's work on an internal storage API, and more on the way. So just saying "the API" is getting confusing.
So let's bikeshed a reasonably short name for it that isn't something awful like "the api.php API". I'm horrible at naming.
For what it's worth, https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/API:Main_page uses "Web API", as does https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_contribute.
Tim Starling wrote:
How about "the action API"? The fact that it is organised in a hierarchy of actions distinguishes it from REST, which is organised as a hierarchy of objects. The term "action" also distinguishes it from RPC.
A quick count at https://www.mediawiki.org/w/api.php says that there are currently 52 &list=foo entries and 83 &action=foo entries. While these numbers are inflated due to installed extensions, I'm hesitant to present the MediaWiki Web API as an action API. Though you could perhaps argue that listing is just another action.
I tend to agree with the view of others in this thread that simply saying "the [{MediaWiki (core), Web}] API" is usually sufficiently clear.
MZMcBride