Ajax + APIs artwork

Ajax + APIs

Advanced
Course

Remix projects by learning how to work with APIs (how different websites talk to each other) and Ajax (a way of grabbing and working with that data).

Purchase this course for $149

Or... get a discount by building a bundle with our learning paths!

Whenever someone says “Twitter has an API”, what they mean is that Twitter has a particular way to let other sites remix their data to create brand new projects.

If you want to make a custom Instagram feed, a Figma-driven client presentation tool, a Bitcoin tracker, or your own redesigned version of Twitter, all of these projects need to communicate back-and-forth with a data source.

Our short online course, aimed at beginners, is designed for people who want to work with APIs (how different websites talk to each other) and Ajax (one way of grabbing and sending that data) together to make remixed projects.

What you’ll learn

Learn to work with your own data and external data sources

Work with data across several formats such as JSON, XML + HTML

Make sites that use services like Figma, Instagram and Contentful to make data-driven sites

Using data from sources like Unsplash search to build interactive API-driven sites

How to work with sites that don't have APIs to use with web scraping

What you’ll get

Real world projects – Projects and code that you can alter and remix to add to your own sites and portfolio

Access the community – Join our Slack and connect with thousands of SuperHi students and alumni

Continued help – Help from our expert teachers and educators with years of experience in the industry

Resources – Resources to get you started and going post-course

8 hours of video lessons – Practical, go-at-your-own pace learning

Who this course is for

Anyone who is looking for ways to work with data from third party services such as Figma, Contentful, Twitter or Instagram.

We would recommend a little knowledge of HTML, CSS and Javascript before starting this course – taking one of Foundation HTML, CSS + JS or Javascript for Designers courses will be sufficient – as we'll be covering how to work with them in context of sending and receiving data to web pages.

A portion of the course covers back-end coding with Ruby but prior knowledge of Ruby or back-end coding isn't needed to join this course.

Most of our students work in the creative industries – designers, strategists and copywriters are the most common jobs – but you can work in any industry to join the course.

What you’ll need

A computer with Mac OS X 10.9 or above, Windows XP or above, or a recent Linux version installed and a broadband internet connection. That’s it!

Want to try our teaching before signing up? Join our free 'Plan, Design + Code Your First Website' course!

Syllabus

Chapter 1

Design Knowledge

In the first project, we'll talk about what is Ajax, what are APIs and what is asynchronous Javascript, and use all these techniques to grab data from a third-party source to display designer quotes.

Chapter 2

Figure

APIs can be used to automate laborous processes. In this project, we take our working Figma project and turn it into a client presentation tool.

Chapter 3

Coin Price

Some data sources continually change and update (hi Bitcoin!) and in this project, we grab data from CoinDesk to display the latest Bitcoin price in dollars, euros and pounds.

Chapter 4

Instafeed

Some APIs are more awkward to use than others, so in this project, we'll talk about Instagram's API which has a few more hoops to get the information we want: our own photos!

Chapter 5

Uova

Sometimes a self-built CMS can feel overkill, so on this project we set up with Contentful to get JSON data from their CMS's API to display on our restaurant site.

Chapter 6

Pitchfork Scraper

Some data sources don't have an accessible API so how do we get that data? We switch to back-end coding with Ruby to grab Pitchfork album reviews from the web.

Chapter 7

Unsplash Search

Data often depends on our users so in this project, we grab data from Unsplash based on our user's search query. If they want blue photos, they'll get blue photos!

Your instructors

Our instructors have decades of professional experience, have spoken at international conferences and have won countless web design awards.

Rik Lomas

Rik (he/him) is a Mancunian coder, teacher and CEO of SuperHi. He was the co-founder of Steer (a code school in London) and has taught several thousand people to code. He is a bit too old to be posting memes on our social media and recently featured as a Sour Patch Kid in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.

Lawrence Gosset

Lawrence is a full-stack web developer and teacher who has also taught over a thousand people how to code. He was previously an instructor at London code school Steer.

You might also like...

$69

How to Set Up a Store with Shopify 2.0

Beginner

Join our 45-minute workshop, perfect for beginners/intermediate developers, to learn how to set up a Shopify store using the Dawn theme. We'll guide you step-by-step through the process, starting with installing Shopify's Command Line Interface (CLI).

$69

Introduction to 3D Modeling and 3D Printing

Beginner

Learn the basics of 3D Modeling & 3D Printing and bring your ideas to life!

$69

AI Integration for the Web: ChatGPT Workshop

Intermediate

Join us for an 80 minute, on-demand workshop, where you'll learn how to seamlessly integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT into your web app project.

Still looking around?

View our growing collection of resources, articles and tutorials. We're adding new things to read, learn and watch every week!

INTERVIEW

Catching Up With... Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling

Agency co-founder, podcast host, and author Kelsey Gilbert-Kreiling chats to us about finding small acts of creativity to unblock your creative spirit, working with celebrity clients, and her latest work: publishing a book and a course.

ADVICE

Ask a Designer #17: How do I communicate design decisions?

How do you communicate your design decisions without sounding defensive? Here's the shift of mindset you might need to stay honest while avoiding conflict or feeling criticized.

ARTICLE

How to Land Your First (or Next) Remote Job

Ana Wang explores whether or not a remote job could be right for you, and shares tips and resources for getting your first (or next) remote job.

FAQs

If you're comfortable working with a computer, then yes!

Learning new and improving your existing skills is about being patient with yourself, building up your knowledge, developing confidence through practice, and with time. We've seen our students around the world do it, and so can you.

Our beginner courses are designed for people new to the subjects. They grow your understanding so you grasp everything you need to start applying your new skills and will also give you a path to dig deeper if you want.

Our teaching style is practical and straightforward and you'll have support from our expert instructors and community for as long as you need.

Still not sure if learning to code is right for you? Take our free Plan, Design + Code Your First Website course or dive into our First Steps to Code guide.

We have quite a lot of students that join us and have done some coding before but want to build up confidence and techniques.

In order to help get you where you'd like to be, have a look at the sites below to see which course you can make from scratch, without any help at all.

Baker & Brown – If you struggle to make this website from scratch, don't worry! We recommend you start off with our Foundation, HTML, CSS + Javascript course.

Jenna Buchholz – If you struggle to make this website from scratch, it's all good! We recommend you start off with our Javascript for Designers course.

Super Shapes – If you struggle to make this website from scratch, have no fear! We recommend you start off with our Advanced CSS + Javascript course.

All of our courses are unlocked and available for students to start their learning and go at their own pace. We do have a suggested weekly structure for some courses, which helps some students stay on track. However, you're definitely free to jump ahead or take as long as you need!

As soon as you checkout and pay, you'll have all the courses you paid for, in your student dashboard available to you immediately. If you're busy and can't start right away - no worries, you can pick it back up later.

At SuperHi, we provide online courses designed for creatives and made for everyone. Take a course on Code, Design, or Project Management 😊

The proof is in the pudding! Our students go on to make their own beautiful sites and some of their stunning work have won digital design awards. Take a look at our Hall of Fame to see some of the sites our students have built, many of which had only taken our Foundation course!

If you're a SuperHi student or alumni and would like to submit your project to be included in our Hall of Fame, please feel free to submit it here.

Yes, we do! All you'd need to do is send the links to your completed projects over to hi@superhi.com at the end of your course. We will review them, provide feedback if necessary, and then issue your certificate!

All our course videos are taught using the SuperHi Editor, but you'll be able to apply everything you'll learn to a code editor of your choice. Many students go on to use other code editors, for example, if their workplace has an existing standard.

Our SuperHi Editor is designed with many smart features to help avoid wasted time looking for things like a typo or missing bracket (which is why we made it!), but the same code concepts apply to any editor.

Yes! You can use your own custom third-party domains and connect them to your sites built with our SuperHi Editor. Additionally, all SuperHi sites come with free SSL Certificates for added protection.

Here's more information on how to connect a third-party domain