REST

REST wiki = http://rest.blueoxen.net/

Resource-oriented

GET /accounts/v1/bob/balance # retrieve Bob's balance

PUT /accounts/v1/bob/balance # update Bob's balance

DELETE /accounts/v1/bob # remove Bob's account

Methods

GET = retrieve

PUT = create new resources (should be able to GET right back from it)

DELETE=delete whole resources

POST=submit data for processing (doing GET afterwords would return different data)

Responses

1XX=internal HTTP functions

2XX=successful responses

200=OK

201=Created

• HTTP/1.1 201 Created
• Location: http://www.example.org/over/there

3XX=redirection/caching

4XX=client-side problem

404=Not Found

405=Method Not Allowed (along with Allow HTTP header describing what is)

• HTTP/1.1 405 Not Allowed
  

• Allow: GET, PUT, DELETE
  

410=Removed Resources (Gone)

414=Request-URI Too Long (2048 bytes max)

5XX=server-side problem

500=Server Error

URL

• http://api.site.com/service/version/resource
• http://api.site.com/accounts/v1/bob
• No file extension
• Keep URLs short
• Alpha-numeric characters only for service and method names

Caching

HTTP 1.1 Cache-Control