What exactly is RESTful programming?

Question

What exactly is RESTful programming?

Answer 1

Old question, newish way of answering. There's a lot of misconception out there about this concept. I always try to remember:

1. Structured URLs and Http Methods/Verbs are not the definition of restful programming.
2. JSON is not restful programming
3. RESTful programming is not for APIs

I define restful programming as

An application is restful if it provides resources (being the combination of data + state transitions controls) in a media type the client understands

To be a restful programmer you must be trying to build applications that allow actors to do things. Not just exposing the database.

State transition controls only make sense if the client and server agree upon a media type representation of the resource. Otherwise there's no way to know what's a control and what isn't and how to execute a control. IE if browsers didn't know

tags in html then there'd be nothing for you to submit to transition state in your browser.

I'm not looking to self promote, but i expand on these ideas to great depth in my talk http://techblog.bodybuilding.com/2016/01/video-what-is-restful-200.html .

An excerpt from my talk is about the often referred to richardson maturity model, i don't believe in the levels, you either are RESTful (level 3) or you are not, but what i like to call out about it is what each level does for you on your way to RESTful