The best way to understand what REST is, and why it is being evangelized so much, is to understand what it is not. Firstly, REST is not a protocol like HTTP, it is a standard that describes a way that HTTP should be used.
Since its inception, HTTP has primarily been used only to GET Web pages, or POST form data. When it came time to start implementing RPC style processes on the Web, CGI was invented. CGI program implementers then started exposing a whole bunch of methods like createObject, getObject, deleteObject, etc.. And, there were no standard naming conventions. The idea that HTTP already exposed methods such as PUT, DELETE, HEAD, etc. as well as the common GET and POST was completely overlooked. What Row Fielding was getting at was there is no need for everyone to go out and re-invent the wheel every time they need to come up with a new method, they just need to take advantage of the existing HTTP methods and apply them in a similar way to the Object (Resource) Oriented paradigm. So, we get - GET [Object (Resource) defined by a URL] instead of getObject(someId) POST [Object (Resource) defined by a URL] (object metadata in posted form) instead of createObject(object metadata) DELETE [Object (Resource) defined by a URL] instead of deleteObject(someId) etc. -- View this message in context: http://restlet-discuss.1400322.n2.nabble.com/concept-of-REST-and-HTTP-itself-tp5418942p5435178.html Sent from the Restlet Discuss mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------ http://restlet.tigris.org/ds/viewMessage.do?dsForumId=4447&dsMessageId=2648093
