REST Architecture

REST Architecture

1. REPRESENTATIONAL STATE TRANSFER

   • REST, or Representational State Transfer, is an architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web, making it easier for systems to communicate with each other.

2. SEPARATION OF CLIENT AND SERVER

   • In the REST architectural style, the implementation of the client and the implementation of the server can be done independently without each knowing about the other.
     • Systems that follow the REST paradigm are stateless, meaning that the server does not need to know anything about what state the client is in and vice versa.

3. COMMUNICATION BETWEEN CLIENT AND SERVER

   • In the REST architecture, clients send requests to retrieve or modify resources, and servers send responses to these requests.
     • MAKING REQUESTS
       • REST requires that a client make a request to the server in order to retrieve or modify data on the server.
         • an HTTP verb, which defines what kind of operation to perform
         • a header, which allows the client to pass along information about the request
         • a path to a resource
         • an optional message body containing data
     • HTTP VERBS
       • There are 4 basic HTTP verbs we use in requests to interact with resources in a REST system: GET, POST, PUT, DELETE

4. 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. This is called the Accept field, and it ensures that the server does not send data that cannot be understood or processed by the client.

5. PATHS

   • Requests must contain a path to a resource that the operation should be performed on. In RESTful APIs, paths should be designed to help the client know what is going on.

6. 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. This content-type header field alerts the client to the type of data it is sending in the response body.
   • RESPONSE CODES
     • Responses from the server contain status codes to alert the client to information about the success of the operation.
       • For each HTTP verb, there are expected status codes a server should return upon success:
         • - GET — return 200 (OK)
         • - POST — return 201 (CREATED)
         • - PUT — return 200 (OK)
         • - DELETE — return 204 (NO CONTENT)