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REST Web services

REST (representational state transfer) is an approach for getting content from a website by reading a designated webpage that contains an XML (Extensible Markup Language) file that describes and includes the desired content. A basic use case for it would be an online publisher making available syndicated content. Subscribers would need only to know the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) for the page where the XML file was located, read it with a Web browser, interpret the content data, and reformat and use it appropriately. The fundamental difference between REST Web services and document-style Web services is how the service consumer knows what to expect out of the service. Web services have contracts, defined in WSDL. Since Web services focus on the service, rather than on the resource, the consumer has clear visibility into the behavior of the various operations of the service, whereas in REST's resource-oriented perspective, we have visibility into the resources, but the behavior is implicit, since there is no contract that governs the behavior of each URI-identified resource.

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  • Three imperatives of SOA development and design 13 Apr 2013

    Tip - When developing service oriented software, SOA architects need to keep in mind these three imperatives in order to develop SOA software effectively.

  • BEST: Web service alternatives to SOAP, XML and REST 07 Apr 2013

    Tip - Sometimes architects over-complicate web services, but indeed, effective solutions can be created without SOA, REST and SOAP.

  • ALM expert: Agile conquers mobile ALM 15 Feb 2013

    Tip - Enterprise application developers are finding mobile application lifecycle management has challenges. ALM pro Howard Deiner advises an Agile approach.

  • The difference between a RESTful PUT and POST 16 Nov 2012

    Tip - One of the most common topic of confusion in the world of RESTful web services is about when to use the POST method and when to use the PUT method invocation. Both can be used for creation, and both can be used for updates. But there is a subtle...

  • Web services provide interoperable functionality 08 Jun 2011

    Tip - If interoperability and pluggability are the goals, a good way to implement business functionality is by using Web services.

  • RESTful Web services made easy 18 May 2011

    Tip - Learn the basics about RESTful web services in this quick tip. You can create a RESTful Web service using nothing more than the JDK, a simple text editor and Tomcat 7.