Why do we need RESTful Web Services?

Question

I\'m going to learn RESTful web services (it\'s better to say that I\'ll have to do this because it\'s a part of CS master degree program).

I\'ve read some info in

Answer 1

To add a slightly prosaic spin on to the answers already given the reason we use REST services where I am is that if you know you can hand a business partner a URL and know they will receive, in return, a nicely laid out slab of XML no matter whether they're working in .Net x.x, PHP, Python, Java, Ruby or god-knows-what it severely reduces headaches.

It also means that on the non-techy end our sales people can brag about our versatile API to people without fears of looking like complete muppets.

Much apart from the technical benefits anything it's easy for a non-techy to explain, demonstrate and feel confident about is a good thing. SOAP, although just as cool for techies is far less approachable by the non-techies and therefore isn't as easy to "sell".

I tend to notice that things non-techies can get their head round tend to stick. So I doubt REST as a technique is liable to be as susceptible as SOAP to the whims of fashion.

But all the stuff about not putting anything in a REST service that should be locked down is double true if only because the technology's so easily understood by people who aren't so technically minded.