REST is basically a way of accessing application logic using HTTP URLs and interpreting HTTP methods as application actions. In fact, it is not really a standard, but rather a convention of how such HTTP methods can be interpreted as application functions.
No requirements are imposed on REST communication data formats, which enables more flexible design. However, absence of data format restrictions can also be a design challenge, making it difficult to consistently implement applications that consume different services.
The most common use case for REST services is to use them to implement back-end application functionalities to be consumed by the front-end user interface part of the application. Such a front-end is often implemented using JavaScript and thus the most common choice for the REST Service data format is JSON (JavaScript Object Notation).
Recent Comments