RESTful APIs

If you've done some research into developing APIs, you may have come across the term RESTful API. REST stands for Representational State Transfer , which is an architectural style introduced by Roy Fielding in 2000 .

Here's a short summary of the REST principles:

• Uniform Interface : Every rest architecture must have a standardized way of accessing and processing data resources. This include unique resource identifiers (i.e., unique URLs) and self-descriptive messages in the server response that describe how to process the representation (for instance JSON vs XML) of the data resource.
• Stateless : Every client request is self-contained in that the server doesn't need to store any application data in order to make subsequent requests
• Client-Server : There must be both a client and server in the architecture
• Cacheable & Layered System : Caching and layering increases networking efficiency

QUIZ QUESTION: :

Match the principles of REST to their descriptions

ANSWER CHOICES:

Resources are only accessible as representations and the rules for processing that representation are described through self-descriptive messages.

Every client request to the server is self-contained and subsequent requests do not require information from prior requests.

A client and server must be present in the architecture.

Caching and other techniques are utilized in order to increase network efficiency.

Description	Principle
Cacheable & Layered System
Stateless
Uniform Interface
Client-Server

SOLUTION:

Description	Principle
Cacheable & Layered System	Caching and other techniques are utilized in order to increase network efficiency.
Stateless	Every client request to the server is self-contained and subsequent requests do not require information from prior requests.
Uniform Interface	Resources are only accessible as representations and the rules for processing that representation are described through self-descriptive messages.
Client-Server	A client and server must be present in the architecture.