What is tap?

tap makes it simple to stand up production-ready APIs from data files. But, what is an API? What are data files? Why focus on APIs? And, how is tap different?

Learn what tap does and how it can help you in this guide.

What is an API?

If you need a refresher, we wrote a handy guide on What is an API? To summarise, APIs are how software systems talk to each other and share information over the internet. Most business tools (think Salesforce, PowerBI, Tableau, Excel, Google Sheets, Zapier or others) use APIs deliver their core functionality and to connect with other systems.

What are data files?

Data files are everywhere in business. They're your spreadsheets, the downloads from government open data portals, and often the easiest way to extract information from older systems. While these files contain valuable information, they're stuck in a format that modern business tools can't easily work with.

Where does tap fit?

Think of tap as the bridge between your data files and business applications.

Here's how it works:

1. Upload your data: Start with a spreadsheet or any other data file (see supported file formats).
2. Shape it how you need it: Optionally, transform your data to make it perfect for your use case. Make use of the full power of SQL (the language of data), to:
   • Choose which columns to include (great for hiding sensitive information).
   • Clean up your data (remove invalid entries, fix inconsistent formatting, etc.).
   • Combine it with other datasets (for example, add location coordinates to address data).
3. Make it available: Set up a unique web address where other systems can access your data, with whatever search and filtering options you need.

That's it! Your data is ready for other systems to connect to with all the essentials built in. No complex coding and no server setup.

How tap is different

Most data tools focus on creating dashboards and visualizations, but they're often expensive, difficult to use, and limited in what they can do.

tap takes a different approach. Since all modern business systems already speak the language of APIs, when tap serves your data through an API, it enables you to:

• Work with your existing tools: Your PowerBI, Tableau, or other business tools can connect directly to your data. This avoids vendor lock-in and ensures everyone in your organization works from the same source of truth, regardless of which tools they prefer.
• Build exactly what you need: With today's user-friendly development tools (and AI!) it's easier than ever to create interactive, responsive and visually appealing applications on top of your data that fit your exact business needs.
• Make your data ready for whatever comes next: APIs are here to stay. Whether you're sharing with partners or the public, migrating to new systems, or building future applications, your data is already in the right format.

Real-world applications:

• Enhance your data wrangling capabilities and share with downstream development teams or stakeholders.
• Focus on user value, removing the toil of consuming open or internal data, via Data APIs.
• Unlock the social value of public and private data. Speak to us about your data sharing needs.

Next: go through the tutorials or learn the key concepts.