每一天，技术似乎都变得更灵活了. 接口被简化, 图形得到提升, 功能增强, and new integrations are created so that all of your technology and devices can play nice and function together.
The same is true in the ecommerce world. (We haven’t just been sitting on our hands once we release a product!) You’ve no doubt noticed that some of your favorite retailers’ and merchants’ websites have changed and improved over time as technology has become more sophisticated.
In a broad sense, 电子商务, this is because we’ve been able to break apart the systems and technologies that make online shopping possible — from websites and servers to software and graphical interfaces. Rather than function like a single chain in which all of the links are required for the chain to work, we’ve been able to pull out individual links and use them in kind of a “plug and play” method to suit what we’re trying to do. And that’s led to things like headless software, headless commerce and application programming interfaces (or APIs).
What does all that babbling mean? Let’s start by discussing “headless software” and we’ll go from there.
What do we mean by headless software?
Technically speaking, when we talk about headless software, we’re talking about software (例如, computer programs, smartphone apps, 等等) that can function on a device without a “graphical user interface.”
Wait, what’s a graphical user interface? Good question, and thanks for paying attention. A graphical user interface is what lets us interact with software using visual cues and indicators. 基本上, it’s how the software is visually presented to the user.
Think of a smartphone you’ve used or seen. When you unlock the phone and go to its home screen with all of its apps, you’re looking at that device’s graphical user interface. That interface allows you to browse, tap and use specific apps and software by displaying the information visually so you can see what you’re selecting.
现在, back to headless software. Without a visual interface, you might be wondering how the software works. Making software headless separates the “front end” — the visual parts of the software a user will interact with — from the “back end” — the part of the software that you can’t see that makes it interactive and usable. 本质上, making software headless keeps all of its functions but removes the software’s baked-in presentation and interface.
You might be wondering — why would we do this? Wouldn’t this limit how the software can be used and shrink the amount of other software and systems that our software can interact with?
This is where APIs come in.
What is an API?
Without getting 也 far into the technical details, at its core, an API is just a connection.
It could be a connection between computers, computer programs, pieces of software, operating systems, hardware and more. 这些日子, 尽管, APIs are typically used to enable computers and software to talk to one another via the internet. 例如, you can check out some of the things developers can do with the Ecwid API Platform here.
Remember the graphical user interface we talked about above? It’s the visual presentation of a device or piece of software that allows it to connect with a person. 相比之下, APIs allow computers and software and other bits of technology to connect to one another.
Think of the last time you tried to print something before everything and everyone was connected to the internet. You’d have to make sure you had that little cable that physically connected the computer to the printer so that the two could communicate and the computer could send the correct document to the printer. In a coarse nutshell, that’s what an API is — that connection that enables technology to talk to other technology.
OK, so now that we know a little bit about how and why APIs work, what do they mean for headless commerce?
What is headless commerce? And why do we want it?
With all of this background in mind, let’s turn our focus to headless commerce. Many online ecommerce platforms (Ecwid included) are offered as software as a service (or SaaS) in which companies and users pay a subscription to access the software, which is centrally hosted outside of the user’s computer or network and can be accessed on demand.
And as with other pieces of software and technology, we have the ability to make ecommerce software headless — that is, separate its visual interface from the backend architecture and construction that gives it its functionality. What that leaves us with is all of the core functions and components of the ecommerce software that makes it “工作” without being tied to a specific user interface, visual representation, or certain company brand.
You might wonder, “What’s the point?” 出色地, with this ability to use the functions of a software (like ecommerce) 不受特定接口的束缚, 开发者有更多的自由, 伙伴, 利益相关者和其他公司可以提供这些服务，而无需从头开始创建自己的电子商务软件.
无头商务还允许其他企业按照他们想要的方式提供电子商务服务 - 通过他们的设计, 他们的界面, 及其用户体验 - 并实现电子商务服务的真正白标. 您可以获得强大的电子商务平台的功能, but one that’s much more under your control.
Imagine shopping online and getting to use all of the functionality and features of Amazon’s online shopping experience without being tied to Amazon’s specific site or app interface, and instead being able to tweak elements of those things so that they’re friendlier to how you like to shop. 那, at its heart, is headless commerce.
我们希望这能让您对无头商务有更多的了解，并对无头软件的潜在应用有一些了解. 您知道并喜欢使用哪些无头软件? 让我们在评论中知道!
