What's the difference between REST & RESTful

user_91729 0
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What's the difference between a REST system and a system that is RESTful?

From a few things I've read most so called REST services are actually RESTful services. So what is the difference between the two.

rest architecture
16 Answers

There are 4 levels of API defined in the Richardson Maturity Model. These are defined as:

  • level 0: any system that has a single endpoint for all its apis(SOAP or RPC fall in this category). Level 0 apis can also resemble "commands".

  • level 1: a ResourceUri described system. This is a system that defines multiple entity-based URIs (instead of having a single endpoint like a level 0 systems would). These URIs can use different http actions (POST, GET, PUT, etc) to implement different actions against that resource.

  • level 2: aka level 1 w/ a compliant use of Standard HTTP methods/verbs and multi status code responses

  • level 3: aka level 2 plus HATEOAS (hypermedia included in the response which describes additional calls you can make)

While levels 1, level 2, and level 3 can be considered as REST systems, only the stricter levels (aka level 2 and level 3) are considered to be RESTful.

So essentially all RESTful apis are REST apis, but not all REST apis are RESTful

definition of the Richardson Maturity Model

user_12865830

Think of REST as an architectural "class" while RESTful is the well known "instance" of that class.

Please mind the ""; we are not dealing with "real" programming objects here.

user_16111260

REST(REpresentation State Transfer) is an architecture using which WebServices are created.

and

RESTful is way of writing services using the REST architectures. RESTful services exposes the resources to identify the targets to interact with clients.

user_42905040

Coming at it from the perspective of an object oriented programming mindset, REST is analogous to the interface to be implemented, and a RESTfull service is analogous to the actual implementation of the REST "interface".

REST just defines a set of rules that says what it is to be a REST api, and a RESTfull service follows those rules.

Allot of answers above already laid out most of those rules, but I know one of the big things that is required, and in my experience often overlooked, as that a true REST api has to be hyperlink driven, in addition to all of the HTTP PUT, POST, GET, DELETE jazz.

user_104534080

REST is an architectural pattern for creating web services. A RESTful service is one that implements that pattern.

user_49816370
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