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Rather, perhaps people should take a look at the thoughts about REST from the researcher who wrote the original dissertation: https://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/200

by dvaun 5y ago

Rather, perhaps people should take a look at the thoughts about REST from the researcher who wrote the original dissertation: https://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-driven https://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypert...

recursivedoubts 5y ago
"I am getting frustrated by the number of people calling any HTTP-based interface a REST API. " I am familiar with that feel.
ramraj07 5y ago
Someone please help here, im reading all the links here and still drawing a blank on what is and is not REST! Can someone link to an API that’s truly RESTful? And perhaps one that’s barely not?
- voiceofunreason 5y ago
  REST is the architectural style of the World Wide Web: browsers reading cached copies of web pages that link to other web pages. So almost any site you hit with your browser is a "RESTful API". Another decent example is Atom Syndication / Atom Publishing. The best introduction that I've found is Jim Webber's 2011 talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQVSzMV8DWc&t=3m8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQVSzMV8DWc&t=3m8s Jon Moore's 2010 Hypermedia APIs talk is also good https://vimeo.com/20781278 https://vimeo.com/20781278 Unfortunately, a second idea appeared, that embraced the label "REST" but used it to mean something else (roughly, a set of conventions for how to organize web pages and the edits one makes to web pages). And the second idea was written and shared with a much larger audience than the first (in addition to being an "easier" idea), so it grabbed a super majority of the mind share.
  - randomdata 5y ago
    > So almost any site you hit with your browser is a "RESTful API". I said something to that effect in a job interview once when the topic of REST came up. I was looked at like I had two heads.
- mnembrini 5y ago
  There are some example links in this post about HATEOAS https://engineering.3ap.ch/post/using-hateoas-with-rest/ https://engineering.3ap.ch/post/using-hateoas-with-rest/ I think the main distinction according to the original paper is if you are doing just HTTP CRUD ( not REST) or also HATEOAS
- tinco 5y ago
  REST has 6 constraints, the 6th constraint has 4 elements, the last of those four is a useless thing called HATEOAS. If you call your API REST, some zealots will open up your API and look if your beautiful response is polluted with any "links". If it is instead pristine, they will claim your API is not REST. It's really ridiculous, the links system is only barely useful in some GUI data exploration tools, that are not even that comfortable to use. If you use a JSON API that feels weirdly antiquated because of the superfluous fields, this is why. If you disregard HATEOAS basically every JSON API on the web is REST.
  - mikevm 5y ago
    I think HATEOAS is basically requiring a client that looks a lot like a web browser. Which is no surprise, since Fielding is basically describing the way the web works. This is not necessarily a good prescription for APIs manipulated by code and not humans.

by dvaun 5y ago

recursivedoubts 5y ago

"I am getting frustrated by the number of people calling any HTTP-based interface a REST API. " I am familiar with that feel.

ramraj07 5y ago

Someone please help here, im reading all the links here and still drawing a blank on what is and is not REST! Can someone link to an API that’s truly RESTful? And perhaps one that’s barely not?

voiceofunreason 5y ago
REST is the architectural style of the World Wide Web: browsers reading cached copies of web pages that link to other web pages. So almost any site you hit with your browser is a "RESTful API". Another decent example is Atom Syndication / Atom Publishing. The best introduction that I've found is Jim Webber's 2011 talk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQVSzMV8DWc&t=3m8s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQVSzMV8DWc&t=3m8s Jon Moore's 2010 Hypermedia APIs talk is also good https://vimeo.com/20781278 https://vimeo.com/20781278 Unfortunately, a second idea appeared, that embraced the label "REST" but used it to mean something else (roughly, a set of conventions for how to organize web pages and the edits one makes to web pages). And the second idea was written and shared with a much larger audience than the first (in addition to being an "easier" idea), so it grabbed a super majority of the mind share.
- randomdata 5y ago
  > So almost any site you hit with your browser is a "RESTful API". I said something to that effect in a job interview once when the topic of REST came up. I was looked at like I had two heads.
mnembrini 5y ago
There are some example links in this post about HATEOAS https://engineering.3ap.ch/post/using-hateoas-with-rest/ https://engineering.3ap.ch/post/using-hateoas-with-rest/ I think the main distinction according to the original paper is if you are doing just HTTP CRUD ( not REST) or also HATEOAS
tinco 5y ago
REST has 6 constraints, the 6th constraint has 4 elements, the last of those four is a useless thing called HATEOAS. If you call your API REST, some zealots will open up your API and look if your beautiful response is polluted with any "links". If it is instead pristine, they will claim your API is not REST. It's really ridiculous, the links system is only barely useful in some GUI data exploration tools, that are not even that comfortable to use. If you use a JSON API that feels weirdly antiquated because of the superfluous fields, this is why. If you disregard HATEOAS basically every JSON API on the web is REST.
- mikevm 5y ago
  I think HATEOAS is basically requiring a client that looks a lot like a web browser. Which is no surprise, since Fielding is basically describing the way the web works. This is not necessarily a good prescription for APIs manipulated by code and not humans.