What is REST?

REST stands for -> representational state transfer. It allows you to create a representation of any resource and share them via a restful service which provides an interface for clients to interact with.

For really deep an detailed information visit wikipedia.

The benefit of using this technology is having stateless interaction and easy accessability.

Example:

Link to resource -> http://host:port/users

The link provides information about the users on the example system. Now you have the ability to fire a so called "GET request" using this URI (uniform resource identifier) and access the information. Most restful services are using standard formats like Json, xml. They also should follow the standard defined in RFC's (request for comments).

The response of that kind of a request might look like this:

{
   results: [
      [
         {
            first: "Veda",
            last: "Sanford",
            email: "[email protected]",
            address: "7680 Sydni Crossroad",
            created: "May 4, 2016",
            balance: "$6,766.87"
         },
         {
            first: "Zola",
            last: "Towne",
            email: "[email protected]",
            address: "365 Andres Port",
            created: "July 1, 2012",
            balance: "$253.86"
         },
      ]
   ]
}

source randomapi.com

Because this is written in json it will be easiliy parsed in any language. I think there is no need to explain more than this. The provided links in this page will explain you a lot more than I could ever do here.

So find out more about REST and have fun using it!

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