REST

aka REpresentational State Transfer.

• Set of architecture principles => implementation is up to developers
• built for web services and mobile applications => lightweight
• Request for data is usually sent over HTTP.
• Return message can be in a variety of formats:
  • HTML
  • XML
  • Plain Text
  • JSON

Application is said to be RESTful if it follows these 6 architecture guidelines:

1. Client-Server (Private) architecture composed of clients, servers and resources.
2. Stateless (Private) client-server communication
   • No client content is stored in server between requests i.e. requests don't share any client information on server side.
   • Information about the session's state is held with client
3. Cacheable data to eliminate the need for some client-server interactions.
4. Uniform interface between components => information is transferred in a standardized way instead of being application-specific.

   Central feature that distinguishes the REST architectural style from other network-based styles. - Roy Fielding (originator of REST)

5. A layered system constraint => client-server interactions can be mediated by hierarchical layers.
6. Code on demand (Private): Allowing servers to extend the functionality of a client by transferring executable Code. => Also reduces visibility => Optional.

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Backlinks

• Spring MVC (cs)