> This is in direct contrast to typical REST-ish APIs that may use arbitrary identifiers. In these systems, clients must understand the identifiers and how they

> This is in direct contrast to typical REST-ish APIs that may use arbitrary identifiers. In these systems, clients must understand the identifiers and how they compose into paths to be used as URIs to request content. > Unfortunately almost all web frameworks are designed for the REST-ish applications where the client constructs URIs, and have the concept of a router based on path segments. I would argue that most frameworks do not really use REST, they use a form of HTTP and JSON based RPC. This goes back to the discussion about HATEOAS. In this case we see a clear advantage HATEOAS has with regards to architecture flexibility and ability to decentralize. With a HATEOAS REST API you do not construct URIs, you just follow them.