gapi.load versus gapi.client.load

javascript google-drive-realtime-api
Brian Slesinsky picture Brian Slesinsky · Jun 1, 2013 · Viewed 8.1k times · Source

In Google's JavaScript API's, what's the difference between gapi.load() and gapi.client.load()? How interchangeable are they and when should I use one versus the other? I see both are used in the Google Drive Realtime API sample code.

Answer

Ben Sittler picture Ben Sittler · Jun 1, 2013

As indicated by the CORS documentation, the gapi.load function is used to dynamically load specific JavaScript libraries.

As documented in the description of the gapi.client.load function (which is provided by the "client" JS library), gapi.client.load is used to build a JavaScript interface for accessing specific HTTP(S) APIs; you can also do this sort of thing yourself using API discovery (search for it to find docs) and sending API requests directly with gapi.client.request or CORS.

Edit: added clarification based on Brian Slesinsky's follow-up comment and made minor wording changes.

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