WHAT IS THE REST API means?
A RESTful API is an style of architecture for an application program interface (API) that uses HTTP requests to access and use data. That data are often used to GET, PUT, POST and DELETE data types, which refers to the reading, updating, creating and deleting of operations concerning resources.
An API for an internet site is code that allows two software programs to communicate with each other. The API spells out the right way for a developer to write a program requesting services from an operating system or other application.
A RESTful API -- also mentioned as a RESTful web service or REST API -- is based on representational state transfer (REST), which is an style of architecture and approach to communications often used in web services development.
REST technology is usually preferred over other similar technologies. This tends to be the case because REST uses less bandwidth, making it more suitable for efficient internet usage. RESTful APIs also can be built with programming languages such as JavaScript or Python.
The REST used by browsers can be thought of as the language of the internet. With cloud use on the increase , APIs are getting used by cloud consumers to expose and organize access to web services. REST may be a logical choice for building APIs that allow users to connect to, manage and interact with cloud services flexibly during a distributed environment. RESTful APIs are employed by such sites as Amazon, Google, LinkedIn and Twitter.
How RESTful APIs work
A RESTful API breaks down a transaction to make a series of small modules. Each module addresses an underlying a part of the transaction. This modularity provides developers with plenty of flexibility, but it are often challenging for developers to design their REST API from scratch. Currently, several companies provide models for developers to use; the models provided by Amazon S3, Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) and OpenStack Swift are the foremost popular.
A RESTful API uses commands to get resources. The state of a resource at any given timestamp is named a resource representation. A RESTful API uses existing HTTP methodologies defined by the RFC 2616 protocol, such as:
- GET to retrieve a resource;
- PUT to vary the state of or update a resource, which may be an object, file or block;
- POST to make that resource; and
- DELETE to get rid of it.
With REST, networked components are a resource the user requests access to -- sort of a black box whose implementation details are unclear. All calls are stateless; nothing are often retained by the RESTful service between executions.
Data formats the remainder API supports include:
- application/json
- application/xml
- application/x-wbe+xml
- application/x-www-form-urlencoded
- multipart/form-data
Uses
Because the calls are stateless, REST is beneficial in cloud applications. Stateless components are often freely redeployed if something fails, and that they can scale to accommodate load changes. this is often because any request can be directed to any instance of a component; there can be nothing saved that has to be remembered by the next transaction. that creates REST preferable for web use. The RESTful model is additionally helpful in cloud services because binding to a service through an API is a matter of controlling how the URL is decoded. Cloud computing and microservices are almost bound to make RESTful API design the rule in the future.
RESTful API Design and Architecture Constraints
RESTful API design was defined by Dr. Roy Fielding in his 2000 doctorate dissertation. so as to be a true RESTful API, an internet service must adhere to the following six REST architectural constraints:
Use of a consistent interface (UI). Resources should be uniquely identifiable through one URL, and only by using the underlying methods of the network protocol, like DELETE, PUT and obtain with HTTP, should it's possible to manipulate a resource.
Client-server based. There should be a transparent delineation between the client and server. UI and request-gathering concerns are the client's domain. Data access, workload management and security are the server's domain. This loose coupling of the client and server enables each to be developed and enhanced independent of the opposite .
Stateless operations. All client-server operations should be stateless, and any state management that's required should take place on the client, not the server.
RESTful resource caching. All resources should allow caching unless explicitly indicated that caching isn't possible.
Layered system. REST allows for an architecture composed of multiple layers of servers.
Code on demand. Most of the time, a server will remit static representations of resources in the form of XML or JSON. However, when necessary, servers can send executable code to the client.
Common REST API challenges
Besides the planning and architecture constraints, individuals will need to confront some challenges with REST APIs. Some concepts which can be challenging can include:
Endpoint consistency -- paths of endpoints should be consistent by following common web standards, which can be difficult to manage.
API versioning -- endpoint URLs should not be invalidated when used internally or with other applications.
Long response times and an excessive amount of data -- the amount of returned resources can increase in size in time, adding to increased load and response times.
Navigation paths and user input locations -- because REST uses URL paths for input parameters, determining URL spaces are often challenging.
Security -- which features a lot of aspects to keep an eye on, including the utilization of:
HTTPS;
blocking access from unknown IP addresses and domains;
validating URLs;
blocking unexpectedly large payloads;
logging requests; and
investigating failures.
Authentication -- use common authentication methods like HTTP basic authentication (which allows for a base64-encoded username:password string), API keys, JSON Web Tokens and other access tokens. OAuth 2.0, for instance , is sweet for access control.
Requests and data -- requests may have more data and metadata than needed or more requests could also be needed to obtain all the data. APIs are often adjusted for this.
API testing -- are often a long process to set up and run. Each a part of the process can be either long or challenging. Testing also can be done in the command line with the utility Curl. Parts of the testing process which will be challenging include:
- Initial setup
- Schema updates
- Test parameter combinations
- Sequence API calls
- Validate test parameters
- System integration
- Define error codes and messages.
With error codes, it's more of a common practice to use standard HTTP error codes. These are recognized by clients and developers more often.
Error handling might not have a way to distinguish if a response is successful or not besides parsing the body or checking for an error.
REST vs. SOAP
REST and straightforward Object Access Protocol (SOAP) offer different methods to invoke a web service. REST is an style of architecture , while SOAP defines a typical communication protocol specification for XML-based message exchange. REST applications can use SOAP.
RESTful web services are stateless. A REST-based implementation is straightforward compared to SOAP, but users must understand the context and content being passed along, as there is no standard set of rules to describe the REST web services interface. REST services are useful for restricted profile devices, like mobile, and are easy to integrate with existing websites.
SOAP requires less plumbing code -- meaning low-level, infrastructural code that connects main code modules together -- than REST services design. the online Services Description Language describes a common set of rules to define the messages, bindings, operations and site of the service. SOAP web services are useful for asynchronous processing and invocation.
History of RESTful APIs
Prior to REST, developers used SOAP to integrate APIs. to form a call, developers handwrote an XML document with a foreign Procedure Call (RPC) in the body. They then specified the endpoint and POST their SOAP envelope to the endpoint.
In 2000, Roy Fielding and a gaggle of developers decided to create a standard so that any server could talk to any other server. He defined REST and therefore the architectural constraints explained above in his 2000 Ph.D. dissertation at the University of California, Irvine. These universal rules make it easier for developers to integrate software.
Salesforce was the primary company to sell an API as part of its "Internet as a Service" package in 2000. However, few developers were actually ready to use the complicated XML API. Then eBay built a REST API, which expanded its market to any site that would access its API. This caught the eye of another e-commerce giant, and Amazon announced its API in 2002.
Flickr launched its own RESTful API in August 2004, enabling bloggers to simply embed images on their sites and social media feeds. Facebook and Twitter both released their APIs in 2006, buckling under the pressure of developers who scraped the sites and created "Frankenstein" APIs. When Amazon Web Services (AWS) helped launch the cloud in 2006, developers were ready to access data space in minutes using AWS's REST API, and therefore the request for public APIs quickly escalated.
Since then, developers have embraced RESTful APIs, using them to feature functionality to their websites and applications. Today, REST APIs are considered the "backbone of the web ."
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