
REST Introduction - pulsarpietro
Does anybody know a short introduction to REST APIs ? 
I know HTTP reasonably well (it is not that complicated after all, I dare to say) and I need to know specifically what REST is about. I understand that being ignorant on the matter does not help in selecting a good source, but I&#x27;ve found all books (PDFs) on the internet excessively long, 300 pages+. Is it me overlooking the topic - because I don&#x27;t know what I am talking about - or are they truly excessive ?<p>Any recommendations ?
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highhedgehog
[https://pages.apigee.com/rs/apigee/images/api-design-
ebook-2...](https://pages.apigee.com/rs/apigee/images/api-design-
ebook-2012-03.pdf)

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jermaustin1
Microsoft has a decent document regarding REST API design[1]. The main gist
is, HTTP Verbs tell the application what to do with the object the URI Path
points to.

1: [https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/best-
pra...](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/best-
practices/api-design)

~~~
ameyv
If you wish to see everything in one single doc page.

[https://github.com/Microsoft/api-
guidelines/blob/vNext/Guide...](https://github.com/Microsoft/api-
guidelines/blob/vNext/Guidelines.md)

~~~
pulsarpietro
Thanks all, this is probably a very good starting point

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kody
I strongly recommend Designing Web APIs:
[http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920123880.do](http://shop.oreilly.com/product/0636920123880.do)

You can jump ahead to the Representational State Transfer chapter to get a
good overview of REST, then read whichever chapters seem interesting or solve
whichever problems you're facing.

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pulsarpietro
Can't find that chapter here: [https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-APIs-
Building-Developer...](https://www.amazon.com/Designing-Web-APIs-Building-
Developers/dp/1492026921)

am I looking at a the right edition ?

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kody
Sorry, it's under Chapter 2. API Paradigms / Request-Response APIs /
Representational State Transfer

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macca321
There's two kinds of REST. REST as most developers misunderstand it, and REST
as Roy Fielding, inventor of REST, understands it.

For the former you can read the Microsoft REST guidelines, for the latter I
suggest getting Mike Amundsen's RESTful Web APIs book.

If you do go with the latter be prepared for a lot of frustration with those
who went with the former.

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Something1234
Can you explain what is wrong with most people's implementation of rest?

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macca321
[https://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-
hypert...](https://roy.gbiv.com/untangled/2008/rest-apis-must-be-hypertext-
driven)

~~~
macca321
and [https://8thlight.com/blog/jason-desrosiers/2018/05/30/the-
hy...](https://8thlight.com/blog/jason-desrosiers/2018/05/30/the-hypermedia-
maturity-model.html) if you are wondering what that means

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santypk4
Check this site [https://restfulapi.net/](https://restfulapi.net/) It has
information about RESTful API Designs, HATEOAS, Caching, Compression, etc.
Very useful

