The REpresentational State Transfer (REST) is a web service access protocol where unique URL is a representation of some object.
Object contents are obtained by an HTTP GET command. To modify an object POST, PUT, or DELETE commands are used.
Many new web services are implemented using a REST style architecture rather than a SOAP one. A RESTful web service (also called a RESTful web API) is a simple web service implemented using HTTP and the principles of REST. The main advantages of REST web services are:
- Lightweight - not a lot of extra xml markup
- Selectable MIME type results
- Easy to build
References:
- "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures", R.T. Fielding, 2000
- "RESTful Web services: The basics", A. Rodriguez, 2008
