When you read about APIs, you'll undoubtedly come across the terms SOAP, RCP, REST, and nowadays also GRPC and GraphQL. The status quo at the time of writing is that all APIs should be "RESTful," and any APIs that are not RESTful are considered subpar. This is a common misconception, which stems from the fact that many misunderstand what REST actually is. Therefore, we start this chapter by examining what REST is, what it is not, why it may not always be practical to use it, and why our API will not be RESTful.
REST stands for representational state transfer, and is a set of architectural styles that dictates the manners and patterns in which you construct your API. REST is nothing new; you are probably already well attuned to it because that's how the World Wide Web is structured, so don't let the terminology alienate you.
There are six requirements for REST:
- Client-server: Defines a clear separation of concerns (SoC) between client and server. The...
