Nov
4th

What does REST stand for? (example: REST API)

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NerdThis may be the most technical and geeky post I’ve done (in at least a week)… but this morning I had a great discovery thanks to Web Builder Magazine (another fantastic Web Mag from the UK). Even when I went to Mashup Camp in Mountain View a little over a year ago, folks couldn’t tell my what ‘REST’ meant in ‘REST API’.

Here goes:

REST is an acronym for the Representational State Transfer architectural style for distributed hypermedia systems. So named by Roy Thomas Fielding

Whew… deep breath! You can read the entire dissertation here, called the Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Information and Computer Science by Roy Thomas Fielding.

Thanks Dr. Fielding! Read more about REST at Wikipedia.

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