Why Use REST Architecture:
For a new project I will be working on, REST architecture is to be used to mainly decouple the front-end and the back-end. By doing this, front-end may be expended from a web application to a mobile application in the future.
The Six REST Architecture Constraints:
- Uniform interface
- Decouples the front-end and the back-end.
- Resources are displayed as a representation (HTML, XML or JSON), and resources are manipulatable by the clients.
- HATEOAS !!!
- Stateless
- Server does not maintain a session.
- The client must include all information for the server to fulfill a request. (resending state as necessary if that state must span multiple requests)
- Cacheable
- Responses must be implicitly or explicitly define themselves as cacheable. This eliminates some client-server interactions, further improving scalability and performance.
- Client-Server
- Client is not concerned with data storage.
- Server is not concerned with the user interface or user state.
- As long as the interface is not altered, servers and clients may also be replaced and developed independently.
- Layered System
- A client cannot tell whether it is connected directly to the end-system or not.
- Intermediary servers may improve system scalability.
- Code on Demand (optional)
- Servers may transfer logic such as Java applet or Javascript codes to the client to temporarily extend or customize the functionality.
If any of the non-optional constraints are broken, the service cannot strictly be referred to as RESTful.
REST Tips:
- Use HTTP verbs (GET, POST, PUT and DELETE) to mean something.
- Resource names should be nouns.
- Create fine-grained resources. Start providing CRUD functionality for small resources, and move on to aggregated functions.
- Consider connectedness. Provide hypermedia linkes in the response. !!!
>>> import this andrew 