REST is the underlying architectural principle of the web. The amazing thing about the web is the fact that clients (browsers) and servers can interact in complex ways without the client knowing anything beforehand about the server and the resources it hosts. The key constraint is that the server and client must both agree on the media used, which in the case of the web is HTML.
An API that adheres to the principles of REST does not require the client to know anything about the structure of the API. Rather, the server needs to provide whatever information the client needs to interact with the service. An HTML form is an example of this: The server specifies the location of the resource and the required fields. The browser doesn't know in advance where to submit the information, and it doesn't know in advance what information to submit. Both forms of information are entirely supplied by the server. (This principle is called HATEOAS: Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State.)
So, how does this apply to HTTP, and how can it be implemented in practice? HTTP is oriented around verbs and resources. The two verbs in mainstream usage are GET and POST, which I think everyone will recognize. However, the HTTP standard defines several others such as PUT and DELETE. These verbs are then applied to resources, according to the instructions provided by the server.
For example, Let's imagine that we have a user database that is managed by a web service. Our service uses a custom hypermedia based on JSON, for which we assign the mimetype application/json+userdb (There might also be an application/xml+userdb and application/whatever+userdb - many media types may be supported). The client and the server have both been programmed to understand this format, but they don't know anything about each other. As Roy Fielding points out:
A REST API should spend almost all of its descriptive effort in
defining the media type(s) used for representing resources and driving
application state, or in defining extended relation names and/or
hypertext-enabled mark-up for existing standard media types.
A request for the base resource / might return something like this:
Request
GET /
Accept: application/json+userdb
Response
200 OK
Content-Type: application/json+userdb
{
"version": "1.0",
"links": [
{
"href": "/user",
"rel": "list",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"href": "/user",
"rel": "create",
"method": "POST"
}
]
}
We know from the description of our media that we can find information about related resources from sections called "links". This is called Hypermedia controls. In this case, we can tell from such a section that we can find a user list by making another request for /user:
Request
GET /user
Accept: application/json+userdb
Response
200 OK
Content-Type: application/json+userdb
{
"users": [
{
"id": 1,
"name": "Emil",
"country: "Sweden",
"links": [
{
"href": "/user/1",
"rel": "self",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"href": "/user/1",
"rel": "edit",
"method": "PUT"
},
{
"href": "/user/1",
"rel": "delete",
"method": "DELETE"
}
]
},
{
"id": 2,
"name": "Adam",
"country: "Scotland",
"links": [
{
"href": "/user/2",
"rel": "self",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"href": "/user/2",
"rel": "edit",
"method": "PUT"
},
{
"href": "/user/2",
"rel": "delete",
"method": "DELETE"
}
]
}
],
"links": [
{
"href": "/user",
"rel": "create",
"method": "POST"
}
]
}
We can tell a lot from this response. For instance, we now know we can create a new user by POSTing to /user:
Request
POST /user
Accept: application/json+userdb
Content-Type: application/json+userdb
{
"name": "Karl",
"country": "Austria"
}
Response
201 Created
Content-Type: application/json+userdb
{
"user": {
"id": 3,
"name": "Karl",
"country": "Austria",
"links": [
{
"href": "/user/3",
"rel": "self",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"href": "/user/3",
"rel": "edit",
"method": "PUT"
},
{
"href": "/user/3",
"rel": "delete",
"method": "DELETE"
}
]
},
"links": {
"href": "/user",
"rel": "list",
"method": "GET"
}
}
We also know that we can change existing data:
Request
PUT /user/1
Accept: application/json+userdb
Content-Type: application/json+userdb
{
"name": "Emil",
"country": "Bhutan"
}
Response
200 OK
Content-Type: application/json+userdb
{
"user": {
"id": 1,
"name": "Emil",
"country": "Bhutan",
"links": [
{
"href": "/user/1",
"rel": "self",
"method": "GET"
},
{
"href": "/user/1",
"rel": "edit",
"method": "PUT"
},
{
"href": "/user/1",
"rel": "delete",
"method": "DELETE"
}
]
},
"links": {
"href": "/user",
"rel": "list",
"method": "GET"
}
}
Notice that we are using different HTTP verbs (GET, PUT, POST, DELETE etc.) to manipulate these resources, and that the only knowledge we presume on the client's part is our media definition.
Further reading:
(This answer has been the subject of a fair amount of criticism for missing the point. For the most part, that has been a fair critique. What I originally described was more in line with how REST was usually implemented a few years ago when I first wrote this, rather than its true meaning. I've revised the answer to better represent the real meaning.)
