I think REST is orthogonal to relational data. (Actual REST, that adheres to HATEOAS and a real REST standard. If one rolls his own JSON services, it's not REST

I think REST is orthogonal to relational data. (Actual REST, that adheres to HATEOAS and a real REST standard. If one rolls his own JSON services, it's not REST.) HATEOAS puts no constraint on how your data is shaped. A specific implementation of REST may or may not have a nice way to navigate graphs. [0] http://restcookbook.com/Basics/hateoas/ http://restcookbook.com/Basics/hateoas/ RESTful Web APIs (2013)[1] is a very, very good book about this stuff. The book has a mailing list with some good discussion about this stuff [2]. [1] http://www.amazon.com/RESTful-Web-APIs-Leonard-Richardson/dp/1449358063 http://www.amazon.com/RESTful-Web-APIs-Leonard-Richardson/dp... [2] https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/collectionjson/inline https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!searchin/colle... I'm still exploring this stuff myself so maybe I am wrong or misunderstanding you.