2.19 REST Representational State Transfer
REST is an architectural style based on HTTP and XML or JSON technology.
It is possible to develop REST style web services using JSMDirect and JSMProxy.
Use the Apache HTTP Server URL rewrite capability to map JSMDirect and JSMProxy URL's to REST resource style URL's.
REST Web Services Characteristics
- Client-Server: a pull-based interaction style.
- Stateless: each request from client to server must contain all the information necessary to understand the request, and cannot take advantage of any stored context on the server.
- Cache: to improve network efficiency responses must be capable of being labeled as cacheable or non-cacheable.
- Uniform interface: all resources are accessed with a generic interface (e.g., HTTP GET, POST, PUT, DELETE).
- Named resources - the system is comprised of resources that are named using a URL.
- Interconnected resource representations - the representations of the resources are interconnected using URLs, thereby enabling a client to progress from one state to another.
- Layered components - intermediaries, such as proxy servers, cache servers, gateways, etc, can be inserted between clients and resources to support performance, security, etc.