The following terminologies have been used in this document
Term
Meaning
Comments
MRA
Malawi Revenue Authority
Sometime the word Authority will be used to refer to MRA
RestAPI
Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface
It's an architectural style for designing networked applications. RESTful APIs use HTTP requests to perform operations like reading data (GET), updating data (PUT), creating data (POST), and deleting data (DELETE) on a server. They are designed to be stateless and can be used across different programming languages and platforms, making them a popular choice for building web services and APIs.
JSON
JavaScript Object Notation
It's a lightweight data interchange format that is easy for humans to read and write and easy for machines to parse and generate. JSON is primarily used to transmit data between a server and a web application as an alternative to XML. It is language-independent, making it a popular choice for representing structured data in web services and APIs. JSON data is typically represented as key-value pairs enclosed in curly braces `{}`.
Terminal
This is a general name referring primarily to Point of Sale System that issue invoices/receipts. The terminal can run on windows, linux, android, MacOs or any platform.
In general, a terminal is any client software that is compatible with the MRA EIS API.
API
Application Programming Interface
It defines the methods and data formats that applications can use to request and exchange information. APIs are commonly used to enable integration between different systems, services, or platforms, allowing developers to access functionality or data from one application to another without needing to understand its internal workings. They are fundamental in enabling the interoperability and integration of diverse software systems, facilitating the development of complex applications by leveraging the capabilities of existing services or platforms.
