REST

REST

1. Is an architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web.

2. SEPARATION OF CLIENT AND SERVER

   • he code on the client side can be changed at any time without affecting the operation of the server and vice versa
   • we improve the flexibility of the interface across platforms and improve scalability by simplifying the server components
   • Additionally, the separation allows each component the ability to evolve independently.

3. STATELESSNESS

   • the server does not need to know anything about what state the client is in and vice versa
   • Resources are the nouns of the Web - they describe any object, document, or thing that you may need to store or send to other services.
   • These constraints help RESTful applications achieve reliability, quick performance, and scalability

4. MAKING REQUESTS

   • HTTP VERBS
     • GET
       • retrieve a specific resource (by id) or a collection of resources
     • POST
       • create a new resource
     • PUT
       • update a specific resource (by id)
     • DELETE
       • remove a specific resource by id
   • HEADERS AND ACCEPT PARAMETERS
     • In the header of the request, the client sends the type of content that it is able to receive from the server
       • MIME Types, used to specify the content types in the Accept field, consist of a type and a subtype. They are separated by a slash (/).
         • image — image/png, image/jpeg, image/gif
         • audio — audio/wav, image/mpeg
         • video — video/mp4, video/ogg
         • application — application/json, application/pdf, application/xml, application/octet-stream
     • The options for types of content are MIME
   • PATHS
     • should be designed to help the client know what is going on.
     • Paths should contain the information necessary to locate a resource with the degree of specificity needed
     • Example: fashionboutique.com/customers/223/orders/12
   • REST requires that a client make a request to the server in order to retrieve or modify data on the server

5. SENDING RESPONSES

   • CONTENT TYPES
     • In cases where the server is sending a data payload to the client, the server must include a content-type in the header of the response
       • Alerts the client to the type of data it is sending in the response body
       • The content-type that the server sends back in the response should be one of the options that the client specified in the accept field of the request.
   • RESPONSE CODES
     • Responses from the server contain status codes to alert the client to information about the success of the operation
       • GET — return 200 (OK)
       • POST — return 201 (CREATED)
       • PUT — return 200 (OK)
       • DELETE — return 204 (NO CONTENT)