What is RESTful Architecture?
RESTful architecture is an architectural pattern that defines a set of constraints and properties based on the principles of Representational State Transfer (REST). It is primarily used for designing networked applications and enables interactions between clients and servers over the web.
Key Characteristics
- Statelessness: Each request from a client contains all necessary information to fulfill that request. The server does not store any client context between requests, making the interactions stateless.
- Resource Identification: Resources are identified using URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers). Each resource can have a unique URL representing it, enabling easy access.
- Standard Methods: RESTful services use standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, DELETE to perform operations on resources.
- Representation: Resources can have multiple representations, such as JSON or XML. Clients can specify the desired representation through request headers.
- Cacheability: Responses must explicitly indicate if they are cacheable or not, improving efficiency and reducing server load.
Advantages
RESTful architecture is highly scalable, simple to understand, and widely adopted, making it a preferred choice for web services. Its stateless nature and use of standard protocols facilitate easy integration and robust interaction across different platforms.