Reproduced from Stack Overflow, original address: Http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2954372/difference-between-spi-and-api
What is the difference between Service Provider Interface (SPI) and application Programming Interface (API)?
More specifically, for Java libraries, what makes them an API and/or SPI?
The API is the description of classes/interfaces/methods/... that's call and use to achieve a goal
The SPI is the description of classes/interfaces/methods/... that's extend and implement to achieve a goal
Put differently, the API tells you "a specific class/method does for you and the SPI tells you are must do to con Form.
Sometimes SPI and API overlap. For example in JDBC the Driver class was part of the spi:if you simply want to use JDBC, you don ' t need to use it directly , but everyone who implements a JDBC driver must implement that class.
The Connection interface on the other hand was both SPI and api:you use it routinely if you use a JDBC driver and it nee DS to is implemented by the developer of the JDBC driver.
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