1.2. Introduction to Representational State Transfer (REST)

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a design architecture for networked applications or systems. In the REST design architecture a client progresses through an application by selecting links, also known as state transitions. Each link selected by the client returns a representation of the selected resource. Also, with each resource representation the client application transfers state, and results in a usable web page being transferred and rendered.

In the REST design architecture, a resource is created for every service that an application provides, with each resource identified by a URL. A client can reference the resource using the URL. The returned representation of the resource is further linked to more information, allowing the client to drill down as far as necessary to get more detailed information. The client can access and perform operations on available resources with standard HTTP methods, such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE.