A Brief Introduction to REST

Key REST principles

Most introductions to REST start with the formal definition and background. I’ll defer this for a while and provide a simplified, pragmatic definition: REST is a set of principles that define how Web standards, such as HTTP and URIs, are supposed to be used (which often differs quite a bit from what many people actually do). The promise is that if you adhere to REST principles while designing your application, you will end up with a system that exploits the Web’s architecture to your benefit. In summary, the five key principles are:

Give every “thing” an ID

Link things together

Use standard methods

Resources with multiple representations

Communicate statelessly

Let’s take a closer look at each of these principles.