1. RESTful services
REpresentational State Transfer
by Gyuri Horak

2. Resource-based
● URI -> resource (not action)
● multiple URI may refer the same resource
○ /employees/12, /departments/dev/employees/3

3. Representations
● JSON or XML or ...
● manipulation through representation

4. use the HTTP
● URI: resource
● HTTP methods: actions
(GET/PUT/POST/DELETE)
● HTTP response: status codes (200, 400, ...)
● HTTP headers
○ Accept: application/json

5. HATEOAS
● Hypermedia as the Engine of Application
State
● all above + provide links to resources in the
body

6. Stateless
● server contains no client state
○ HTTP auth (over HTTPS)
○ signed cookies, tokens
○ (server side sessions)
● self-descriptive messages
● any session state is held on the client

7. Cacheable
● server should set proper Cache / ETag
headers

8. Example
GET /users -> (200) retrieve user list
POST /users/ [data] -> (201) create & return
new user
PUT /users/12 [data] -> (200) modify (create if
not exists or 404) user 12
DELETE /users/12 -> (200) delete user 12

9. Tools
● Chrome dev tools, copy as curl
● Advanced REST client (https://chrome.
google.com/webstore/detail/advanced-rest-
client/hgmloofddffdnphfgcellkdfbfbjeloo)
● http://httpie.org/
● http://pythonhosted.org/curlish/
● https://github.com/vfaronov/turqr