When will I have access to the lectures and assignments?

To access the course materials, assignments and to earn a Certificate, you will need to purchase the Certificate experience when you enroll in a course. You can try a Free Trial instead, or apply for Financial Aid. The course may offer 'Full Course, No Certificate' instead. This option lets you see all course materials, submit required assessments, and get a final grade. This also means that you will not be able to purchase a Certificate experience.

What will I get if I subscribe to this Specialization?

When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. Your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.

Is financial aid available?

Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.

Using APIs for Network Automation

4 days left! Save on skills that make you shine with 40% off 3 months of Coursera Plus. Save now

Using APIs for Network Automation

This course is part of Network Automation Engineering Fundamentals Specialization

Instructor: Cisco Learning & Certifications

4,445 already enrolled

Included with

Learn more

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

35 reviews

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

4 hours to complete

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

4 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

35 reviews

Intermediate level

Recommended experience

4 hours to complete

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

Skills you'll gain

Tools you'll learn

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

16 assignments

Taught in English

91%

of learners achieved a positive career outcome

See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills

Learn more about Coursera for Business

logos of Petrobras, TATA, Danone, Capgemini, P&G and L'Oreal

Build your subject-matter expertise

This course is part of the Network Automation Engineering Fundamentals Specialization

When you enroll in this course, you'll also be enrolled in this Specialization.

Learn new concepts from industry experts
Gain a foundational understanding of a subject or tool
Develop job-relevant skills with hands-on projects
Earn a shareable career certificate

There are 4 modules in this course

This course will provide a solid foundation for understanding how APIs are utilized in network automation by discussing important topics such as data encoding formats, REST APIs, and the Python Requests library. Upon completion of the course, you will be equipped with the necessary skills to utilize APIs in your network automation solution and be able to describe the usefulness of APIs in this context.

This course is primarily intended for network engineers, systems engineers, network architects, and managers interested in learning the fundamentals of network automation and network APIs. By the end of the course, you will be able to: - Describe the need for data encoding formats and study various data encoding formats. - Interpret and construct HTTP-Based APIs calls to network devices. - Construct and interpret Python scripts using the Python requests module to automate devices that have HTTP-based APIs. To be successful in this course, you should be proficient in fundamental network routing & switching technologies, understand the basics of Python programming (3-6 mos exp.) and have some familiarity with Linux.

Module details

In this module, we will review the topics and what you will learn in this course.

What's included

1 video2 readings1 discussion prompt

The foundational programming topic of data encoding formats is an essential skill for understanding the more advanced concepts like APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and Python programmability. In this course, you will first learn about the two main data encoding formats, XML (extensible markup language) and JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), which are commonly used in APIs. This course also introduces YAML, a structured data format and markup language commonly used for configuration files in automation and is gaining popularity due to its ease of readability for humans.

What's included

6 videos7 readings6 assignments

6 videosTotal 43 minutes

Module Introduction for Reviewing Data Formats and Data Encoding2 minutes
Data Encoding Formats8 minutes
JavaScript Object Notation7 minutes
Extensible Markup Language10 minutes
YAML Data Serialization Standard7 minutes
Ask The Expert—Data Encoding Formats9 minutes

7 readingsTotal 29 minutes

Data Encoding Formats6 minutes
Serialization and Deserialization of Data3 minutes
JavaScript Object Notation 4 minutes
JSON in Python4 minutes
Extensible Markup Language4 minutes
Work with XML and JSON4 minutes
YAML Data Serialization Standard4 minutes

6 assignmentsTotal 21 minutes

Graded Quiz for Reviewing Data Formats and Data Encoding8 minutes
Practice Quiz for Data Encoding Formats3 minutes
Practice Quiz for JavaScript Object Notation4 minutes
Practice Questions for Extensible Markup Language 3 minutes
Practice Quiz for YAML Data Serialization Standard2 minutes
Practice Quiz for Ask the Expert session1 minute

The application programming interface (API) enables unrelated applications to interface with each other without having to understand how each other works or share the same programmatic language. APIs are becoming more commonplace in today’s digital age and are enabling a world of automation and interactivity. Network Engineers need to understand how to leverage APIs as vendors like Cisco are designing APIs for many of their products, enabling the ease of Network Automation and creating more possibilities to interact with 3rd party non-networking products.

What's included

7 videos6 readings7 assignments

7 videosTotal 22 minutes

Module Introduction to Introducing HTTP Network APIs3 minutes
API Overview1 minute
HTTP-Based APIs3 minutes
RESTful APIs vs. Non-RESTful APIs3 minutes
Common API Constraints7 minutes
Postman2 minutes
Streaming Telemetry2 minutes

6 readingsTotal 23 minutes

API Overview2 minutes
HTTP-Based APIs3 minutes
RESTful APIs vs. Non-RESTful APIs5 minutes
Common API Constraints7 minutes
Postman2 minutes
Streaming Telemetry4 minutes

7 assignmentsTotal 17 minutes

Graded Quiz for Introducing HTTP Network APIs7 minutes
Practice Quiz for API Overview1 minute
Practice Quiz for HTTP-Based APIs2 minutes
Practice Quiz for RESTful APIs vs. Non-RESTful APIs2 minutes
Practice Quiz for Common API Constraints2 minutes
Practice Quiz for Postman2 minutes
Practice Quiz for Streaming Telemetry1 minute

Nearly any platform or commercial product comes with some sort of application programming interface (API) capability, many of which are HTTP APIs. These APIs can be used for machine-to-machine communication for network automation and can be the catalyst that you need to fully accelerate your network automation journey. You have seen how you can use Postman for testing and exploring HTTP APIs, but to do anything with the API, while in a programming language like Python, you need to use an HTTP client. One such client, which is presented in this section, is the Requests module for Python.

What's included

4 videos4 readings3 assignments

4 videosTotal 22 minutes

Module Introduction to Using Python Requests to Automate HTTP-Based APIs2 minutes
Python Requests Overview5 minutes
HTTP Authentication - Part 15 minutes
HTTP Authentication - Part 29 minutes