What is REST?
REST, or Representational State Transfer, is an architectural style for designing distributed hypermedia systems. It is based on the use of HTTP verbs to represent different actions, such as:
- GET for retrieving data
- POST for creating data
- PUT for updating data, and
- DELETE for deleting data
RESTful systems use URIs to identify resources, and they use HTTP headers to provide additional information about the resource, such as its content type.
Advantages of using RESTful systems:
- Scalability: RESTful systems are scalable because they are based on the use of HTTP, which is a well-established and widely-supported protocol.
- Flexibility: RESTful systems are flexible because they can be used to create a wide variety of applications.
- Reusability: RESTful systems are reusable because they can be used to create different parts of an application independently.
RESTless systems are not fully RESTful. They may use HTTP verbs and URIs, but they may not use them in a consistent way. For example, a RESTless system might use the GET verb to create data, or the POST verb to retrieve data.
Hence, RESTful is a great choice for building web services. It is easy to learn and use, and it provides a solid foundation for building scalable and maintainable applications. If you are looking for a way to build web services, I highly recommend using RESTful.
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