Learn Me Good, Please!

Hello knowledgable ones,

I want to develop a suite of complementary tools (to cs-cart) that I build as I need them, so I see some workflows and task management tools in my future. I have been reading and playing for a few weeks now. I am a little confused around the difference between

- add-ons vs cs_cart API (... and is that different to the API pinned to the top of this forum?), and

- cURL vs API vs Hooking

My reason for asking is if there is duplication here, what is the most useful?

For context:

- I have MVE 4.13

- Cpanel

- Completed the cs-cart advanced add-on tutorial

- Other than some advanced VBA and SQL my technical skills are more in requirements elicitation and project management

- I have dipped my toes and have skipped through some W3 PHP, HTML and CSS tutorials.

The api is an interface into the application from an external source.

Hooks are used to extend the functionality of cs-cart and many times that functionality is visible via the api (though not always).

cURL is just one method of connecting between sites. Suggest you use the HTTP class instead since it will use the appropriate connection method based on your server environment.

Thanks, clear and succinct