RESTful web service - versioning the API

This is the fourth post in this series of posts on RESTful web service.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

In this post we discuss the need for versioning an API and the possible ways to do it. The need for versioning is not restricted to the REST scenario alone - whatever is applicable to the REST scenario is also applicable to HTTP web services.

APIs don't exist for themselves - they are meant to be consumed by clients. When an API is considered stable and shipped to production, a client consuming the API buys into the media type and the representation of the resources it describes. Now if the API was to undergo a change - and it will, as change is the only constant in our industry - its clients' will in all probability break.

This is the fundamental reason to version APIs.

Read the full post here.

RESTful web service - media types and resource representation

This is the third in this series of posts on RESTful web service.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4

In this post we will examine the role of internet media types, especially the 'application' media type in a REST service.

The media type, to a large extent, describes the contract between the server and the client in a REST web service.

Read the full article here.

RESTful web service - how do I design one?

This is the second post of the series on RESTful Web Service.

Part 1, Part 3, Part 4

In this post we discuss how to design and build a REST API (a collection of REST web service).

As with any design we ask ourselves what our end goals are, and then decide how we go about achieving these. I believe the questions below set out what the minimum end goals are when designing a successful REST API.

1. How do we discover a Resource? What is its URI? How do we map HTTP methods to the actions possible in an entity?
2. What is the representation of the resource?
3. How do we decide on a contract for the services? 

Answers to question 1 and 2 are necessary for designing both HTTP and REST web service; the answer to question 3 really define how to make the service REST.

We'll cover the first two in this post, and the third in a subsequent post.

Read the full article here.

RESTful web service - what is this?

Many of us have, at some point or the other, created and consumed web services. Many of us have created and consumed RESTful (or REST) web services, because that is the trend nowadays. Or have we actually created a HTTP based web service and not really a REST web service? It's pretty easy to create a HTTP based web service with, for example, Microsoft's ASP.NET Web API 2 framework and provide the consumer of the service with a JSON payload. But there is more to a REST web service than 'just returning a JSON payload'.

So what is a REST web service?

Read the full article here.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4