Getting started with REST [closed]

Answer 1

The best introduction I have read is the RESTful Web Services book, which goes beyond explaining the model and principles and actually shows you how to design a RESTful web service. Most useful is its checklist for how to write/specify an REST API:

1. Figure out the data set [i.e. specify the data model].
2. Split the data set into resources. For each kind of resource:
3. Name the resources with URIs.
4. Expose a subset of the uniform interface [i.e. specify which HTTP methods are used and what they do].
5. Design the representations(s) accepted from the client [e.g. the XML format you can PUT or POST].
6. Design the representations(s) served to the client [e.g. the XML you get back].
7. Integrate this resource into existing resources, using hypermedia links and forms.
8. Consider the typical course of events: what's supposed to happen? [This is like a use case main success scenario.]
9. Consider error conditions. [This is like use case exception scenarios.]