REST
REST (Representational state transfer) is an architecture style for distributed systems used to create web services. It is a set of methods for processing and transferring resource states using the most common HTTP protocol. To put it simply, REST is a format of "communication" between the browser and server parts of a website or web application.
Systems that support these principles are called RESTful, and they are the vast majority.
In REST, each piece of information has its own global URL identifier. Data is transmitted as is, without additional layers as XML. It is used only for request formatting, as a standard for HTTP, but can be replaced by JSON. All urls are built according to a strictly defined format that does not depend on the format of the data itself. They can lead to an HTML page, a simple image, a text file, etc. The data pointed to by the URL is managed using the methods of the transfer protocol. For HTTP, these are the classic ones - GET, PUT, POST, and DELETE.
The separation of interfaces provides a weak connection between components. Clients are not tied to the data stored on the servers, and they, in turn, are not tied to the user interface. This allows you to make changes to each component independently, which simplifies the system itself and its scalability.
Using the stateless protocol means that the server will not store client data. Each request will be an independent transaction, with all the necessary information, including the client id, if necessary.
Requirements for the organization of client-server interaction, including the features of the REST style described earlier, and other principles, such as self-documented messages, hypermedia, caching, and so on.
- It is a universal solution for any website and application that is used almost by default;
- The project is easier to scale due to the independent implementation of components;
- REST works well in systems with limited connection bandwidth;
- Suitable for creating fast and responsive AJAX web applications with partial UI updates, without completely reloading the page.
REST is a classic set of ways to organize web services, i.e. connections between website components It is simply a way to organize data transfer between a server and a browser. By itself, it is not tied to technologies and protocols, but given the prevalence of the HTTP protocol and the JSON and XML formats for web services, it is used with them.
REST involves using HTTP the way its creators intended, without extending or overloading it. It is a set of the simplest and most resource-intensive program methods for adding, modifying, retrieving, and deleting information. REST competitors are now significantly inferior to it, and this style of architecture is the default solution.