REST
From JISC Standards Catalogue
- Entry
- REST
- Area
- Web Standards
- Standard
- REST (Representational State Transfer) an architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems like the Web. The term 'REST' is sometimes misused to describe any simple Web-based interface that uses XML and HTTP without use of Web Service technologies such as SOAP. In an effort to counter the confusion caused by this misuse, the term POX (Plain Old XML) is sometimes used to refer to approaches based on the exchange of XML documents over HTTP. POX applications may also observe the architectural constraints of REST, but many POX applications do not observe those constraints i.e. they are not based on the REST architectural style. Also it is quite possible for an application using SOAP to be based on the REST architectural style.
- Standardisation
- Architectural approach based on open standards.
- Version
- Not applicable.
- Maturity
- This is an increasingly popular approach for providing machine interfaces to Web services.
- Risk Assessment
- The REST approach is used in a variety of Web applications such as Amazon, eBay, various Blogs, etc.
- Take-up Elsewhere
- A posting on REST vs. SOAP at Amazon indicated that 85% of usage of Amazon's Web services made use of REST.
- Further Information
- Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures, Chapter 5, Roy Fielding, <http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm>
- Representational State Transfer, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/REST>
- SOAP vs. POX vs. REST, Random Stuff, Stefan Tilkov’s Weblog, 6 November 2006, <http://www.innoq.com/blog/st/2006/11/06/soap_vs_pox_vs_rest.html>
- REST Wiki, <http://rest.blueoxen.net/>
- SOAP vs. REST, <http://penfold.lib.hull.ac.uk:8080/confluence/display/details/SOAP+vs.+REST>
- Author
- Brian Kelly, UKOLN
- Contributors
- Date Created
- 22 July 2005. Updated 2 October 2006 and 13 February 2007.
- Version
- v1.1
