Today, we’re proud to announce the release of .
The API will allow you, as an AWeber user, to easily integrate other online products and services together to save time and create additional value for your business.
Read on for more information about the new API, what you should expect to see as an user, and an introduction to the first official app – a WordPress plugin!
While the term “API” is thrown around a lot in the online world, let’s take a moment to talk about what is, and what it can do for you, the user.
API is short for “Application Programming Interface,” which may not sound terribly helpful, but describes the function of an API pretty well: it’s a tool for developers to use to make applications (apps) that work with . Many times, when you see something like an iPhone app that works with Facebook, you’re looking at something that a developer built using an API.
So how will most customers interact with the API? They won’t, at least not directly. What most customers will do is use apps that actual programmers create using the API, allowing users to access and use information from their AWeber accounts from almost anywhere online.
The API will allow you to use apps to more easily integrate AWeber with other products and services online.
While we expect many applications to be produced by outside developers after the release of the API, we’ve prepared an initial offering, both to show off some of the things the API is capable of and also to provide a little boost to the level of integration we can provide to those customers that use the popular blogging software WordPress.
Without further ado, allow me to introduce you to the very first app: the .
In a nutshell, it allows you to connect your WordPress blog with your AWeber account, letting you place AWeber forms on your self-hosted WordPress blog with just a few clicks, and without having to copy any code.
If you have a blog or site powered by WordPress, .
The great thing about AWeber’s API (and APIs in general) is you don’t need to work directly with the API itself to take advantage of the applications that developers create for it. When a developer creates an application, you can simply install the app that they designed, then just (Facebook and Twitter fans, you’ll find the process familiar).
As far as AWeber is concerned, that’s it! As with the WordPress app we created, after that authentication, apps will continue to work for you even when you aren’t logged into your AWeber account.
One immediate change you will see in your AWeber account is the “My Apps” link in the upper right corner of your account.
Once you connect apps to your account, you can here, but the main attraction on this page is the App Showcase. For now, we’ll be highlighting apps created by the developers here at AWeber, but as independent apps are created, you may see the most popular and useful of those apps appear here as well.
That’s a wrap – feel free to comment or ask any questions you have about the new API below, or simply check out the knowledge base for more information.
Before we sign off though:
If there are features that are not included in this first version of the API, please let us know! There are plans in place for expanded versions of the API in the future, aimed at improving your ability to integrate your AWeber account with other sites and services even further.
If you or someone you know is a developer, interested in creating an application to work with AWeber’s API, just visit , the official home of and hub for the AWeber API. There, you’ll find instructions on how to create and register applications to work with AWeber.