REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is an architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web, making it easier for systems to communicate with each other.
REST-compliant systems, often called RESTful systems, are characterized by how they are stateless and separate the concerns of client and server. RESTful systems characteristics:
Separation of Client and Server: In the REST architectural style, the implementation of the client and the implementation of the server can be done independently without each knowing about ther other.
Statelessness: Systems that follow the REST paradigm are stateless, meaning that the server does not need to know anything about what state the client is in and vice versa.
In the REST architecture, clients send requests to retrieve or modify resources, and servers send responses to these requests.
REST requires that a client make a request to the server in order to retrieve of modify data on the server. A request generally consists of:
- an HTTP verb (defines what kind of operation to perform)
- a header (allows the client to pass along information about the request)
- a path to a resource
- an optional message body containing data
There are 4 basic HTTP verbs we use in requests to interact with resources in a REST system:
GET- retrieve specific resources (by id)POST- create a new resourcePUT- update a specific resource (by id)DELETE- remove a specific resource (by id)