Representational State Transfer (REST)

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a style of architecture based on a set of principles that describe how networked resources are defined and addressed. These principles were first described in 2000 by Roy Fielding as part of his doctoral dissertation (new window). REST is an alternative to the W3C's set of standards that include SOAP (new window) and other WS-* specifications (some are shown in the navigation menu below).

It is important to note that REST is a style of software architecture as opposed to a set of standards. As a result, such applications or architectures are sometimes referred to as RESTful or REST-style applications or architectures. REST has proved to be a popular choice for implementing Web Services. For example, the books suggested at the bottom of many of these article pages are dynamically generated, in part, using a REST architecture. It is one of the options for Amazon Web Services (new window).

An application or architecture considered RESTful or REST-style is characterized by:

This is essentially the architecture of the Internet and helps to explain the popularity and ease-of-use for REST.

More information:  Roy Fielding's doctoral dissertation (new window)

Web Services and Service-Oriented Architectures Online articles > Consulting Mentoring Speaking Suggested programs Stencils for the Savvy Manager's Guide Links Mail list Privacy policy Sitemap Contact

Web Services articles > XML standards and vocabularies Application server articles Database concepts and standards Object database articles Relational database articles Object-relational mapping articles XML database articles XML middleware articles Article Sponsorship Reprint policy

Web Services definition Service-oriented architecture (SOA) definition Web Services explained Web Services specifications > Prior Service-Oriented Architecture specifications Organizations Article suggestions

Models and metamodels Repository Messaging > Service Security and authorization Federated network identity User interface Workflow Application servers Object programming languages

Messaging components Messaging specifications > Transaction specifications

Representational State Transfer (REST) > SOAP Message Service Specification (MSS) RosettaNet Business Message Asynchronous Application Service Protocol (ASAP) for SOAP XML Protocol (XMLP) Web Distributed Data Exchange (WDDX) Web Services Addressing (WS-Addressing) Web Services Eventing (WS-Eventing) Web Services Notification (WSN) Web Services Reliability (WS-Reliability) Web Services Reliable Messaging (WS-ReliableMessaging)

Related recent articles from Google News

Mule architect sees REST with Atom rising, UDDI fading SearchSOA - 17 hours ago So if you're doing that kind of application then I would look to Web services. In terms of REST, what kind of tools are developers going to need to do ...

SYS-CON Media

WSO2's Glen Daniels to Present at SYS-CON's SOA World Conference ... SYS-CON Media, NJ - 2 hours ago He has been deeply involved with Web Services since 2000, and spearheaded Apache's Axis project. He serves as WSO2's Director of Java Platforms and VP, ...

SOA Talk: A SearchSOA.com blog SearchSOA - 17 hours ago They have a variety of communications mechanisms including Web services, JMS, and EDI.? Facilitating SOA development in these heterogeneous environments was ...

SYS-CON Media

The Tale of Two Webs: The Browser-Desktop Border is Blurring SYS-CON Media, NJ - May 12, 2008 A great deal of energy has been wasted attempting to define terms like ?Web,? ?Web Services,? ?Web 2.0,? ?Internet,? and ?RIA?. This is understandable as we ...

Java One: Mule architect looks to bring REST to SOA SearchSOA - May 8, 2008 The solutions are very Web services centric, which doesn't necessarily reflect a lot of developer infrastructures these days. ...

Related books at Amazon.com

RESTful Web Services by Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby, David Heinemeier Hansson Average Customer Review: based on 28 reviews. Customer Review: RESTful web services is one of the (very) few books I read from start to finish without browsing the ToC for "more interesting" chapters than the one I was currently reading. From a writers perspective, this book is executed flawlessly: great organization of content, good segues that keep the flow, fun to read, etc. The title, howev...

Developing web services choreography standards-the case of REST vs. SOAP [An article from: Decision Support Systems] by M. zur Muehlen, J.V. Nickerson, K.D. Swenson Publisher: Elsevier Publication Date: July 2005

More related books: Search Amazon.com for Representational State Transfer

Copyright © 2000-2008 Barry & Associates, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
You can use this material for your work or classes. Click here for our reprint policy.
www.service-architecture.com