What is REST? REST (Representational State Transfer) is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It’s not a protocol or a standard, but rather a set of principles that use HTTP to perform CRUD operations (Create, Read, Update, Delete) on resources.
Why REST? REST became popular because it’s simple, stateless, and leverages existing HTTP methods like GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.
Think of REST like a restaurant:
You (client) place an order (request) The kitchen (server) prepares the food (response) You don’t need to know how they made it; you just get the result Core Principles Stateless: Each request contains all necessary information. Server doesn’t store session. Client-Server: Decouples frontend and backend. Cacheable: Improves performance by caching responses. Uniform Interface: Resources are accessed via standard URIs and HTTP methods. Layered System: Architecture can have multiple layers (like proxies, gateways). HTTP Methods Method Action GET Read POST Create PUT Update DELETE Delete Example GET /users/123 This fetches user with ID 123.
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