RESTful services are almost exclusively used over the HTTP protocol. I
suppose you *could* use a different protocol if you were determined to
do so but, speaking for myself, if you need another protocol I'd
recommend using SOAP.
The server where the REST service is deployed must be a web server.
The clients can be anything.
Cheer!
-John
Quoting Raj Floyd <[email protected]>:
Thank. One last question:
In what way RESTful services are interoperable? They are bound to HTTP
protocol and therefore it effectively means we need HTTP capable clients and
servers to handle RESTful messages. Now REST messages goes as HTTP request
and response body (like XML encapsulated into request body), how it can be
read by a node which is not a web server. Any clues?
Correct me if my understanding is wrong. Thanks.
Raj
On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 5:21 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
You can do the exact same things with either approach because, at the end
of the day, RAX-RS is built on top of the servlet API so it stands to reason
that you can do the same things in either. I can think of a couple big
distinctions between them off the top of my head.
1) JAX-RS is a standard for creating RESTful services in a consistent way.
No two servlet based RESTful services will be alike. Each one will be a work
of art.
2) Servlet based RESTful services are more likey to have bugs in them
because you are continually re-implementing RAX-RS functionality. By and
large this can be mitigated with good design, testing, inheritance, etc but
the possibility for error is still higher.
3) RAX-RS is easier to use and easier to read, which makes it more
maintainable in the long run.
4) RAX-RS services will be easier to test outside of a servlet container
because they are largely decoupled from the servlet API itself.
Cheers!
-John
Quoting Raj Floyd <[email protected]>:
Hi
REST style architecture, being based on HTTP specification, has common
conventions like GET, POST typically also used by Servlets. Any idea why
one
would prefer RESTful Web service and not plain Servlet based framework.
Its
Web and HTTP in the end. I know this question may not be directly related
to
CXF but really need to understand the clear semantics between RESTful and
Servlet based frameworks. Will appreciate if you could guide me to a post
or
white paper which has this discussion.
Thanks.
Raj
