Abstract

Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style for building distributed systems. The Web is an example for such a system. REST-style applications can be built using a wide variety of technologies. REST's main principles are those of resource-oriented states and functionalities, the idea of a unique way of identifying resources, and the idea of how operations on these resources are defined in terms of a single protocol for interacting with resources. REST-oriented system design leads to systems which are open, scalable, extensible, and easy to understand.

The Web as a System

• The Web is one distributed hypermedia system
  • the main architectural components are URIs, HTTP, and HTML
  • all other Web technologies are built on that foundation
  • if they are not, they are very likely not well-designed Web technologies
• The Web is amazingly open, scalable, extensible, and easy to understand
  • openness allows new technologies to be introduced
  • scalability ensures that the system does not contain bottlenecks
  • extensibility allows the Web to evolve without any redesign of existing parts
  • simplicity makes sure that the system survives and evolves
• No other information system gets even close to the Web
  • but not all information system designs can accept the Web's limitations
  • REST should be seen as a guideline how to build a true Web application
  • other applications will continue to be built using other approaches

Web System Design

There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult.

C. A. R. Hoare, The Emperor's Old Clothes, 1980 Turing Award Lecture