(Representational State Transfer) : Roger L. Costello Timothy D. Kehoe

Copyright © [2005]. Roger L. Costello, Timothy D. Kehoe. All Rights Reserved.
REST
(Representational State Transfer)
Roger L. Costello
Timothy D. Kehoe
Copyright © [2005]. Roger L. Costello, Timothy D. Kehoe. All Rights Reserved. 2
Overview
• The Web's simple set of operations,
i.e., the Web's API
• The Web's fundamental components
• REST
• Questions and Answers
• The REST design pattern (summary)
• References
The Web's Simple Set of

Operations
(i.e., the Web's API*)
* Application Programming Interface

Web Basics: Retrieving

Information using HTTP GET
http://www.amazon.com
GET
GET//HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1
Host:
Host:http://www.amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com Amazon
Web Server
- The user types in at his browser: http://www.amazon.com

- The browser software creates an HTTP header (no payload)
- The HTTP header identifies:
- The desired action: GET ("get me resource")
- The target machine (www.amazon.com)
Web Basics: Updating

Information using HTTP POST
POST
POST//HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1
Host:
http://www.amazon.com
Book: DaVince Code Book:
Book:Da DaVince
VinceCode
Code
Credit Card: Visa
Number: 123-45-6789 Credit
CreditCard:
Card:Visa
Visa
Expiry: 12-04-06
Number:
Number:123-45-6789
123-45-6789
Expiry:
Expiry:12-04-06
12-04-06 Amazon
Web Server
- The user fills in the Web page's form
- The browser software creates an HTTP header with a payload
comprised of the form data
- The HTTP header identifies:
- The desired action: POST ("here's some update info")
- The target machine (amazon.com)
- The payload contains:
- The data being POSTed (the form data)
Terminology:
Header and Payload
POST This information
POST//HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1
Host:
http://www.amazon.com (the HTTP data)
Book: is called the
Book: DaVince Code Book:DaDaVince
VinceCode
Code
Credit Card: Visa
CreditCard:
Card:Visa
Visa
HTTP header
Expiry: 12-04-06
Number:
Number:123-45-6789
123-45-6789
Expiry:
Expiry:12-04-06
12-04-06 Amazon
Web Server
This information (the form data) is called the payload.

Web Basics: Simple Set of

Operations, via the HTTP API
• HTTP provides a simple set of operations.
Amazingly, all Web exchanges are done
using this simple HTTP API:
– GET = "give me some info" (Retrieve)
– POST = "here's some update info" (Update)
– PUT = "here's some new info" (Create)
– DELETE = "delete some info" (Delete)
• The HTTP API is CRUD (Create, Retrieve,
Update, and Delete)
Fundamental Web Components

Web Component: Firewalls

(Firewall: "Should I allow POSTing to geocities?")
POST
POST/ /HTTP/1.1
HTTP/1.1
Host:
Host:http://www.geocities.com/crafts/woodworking/fred
http://www.geocities.com/crafts/woodworking/fred
FIREWALL
Item: Woodworking set
Credit Card: Visa
Item:
Item:Woodworking
Woodworkingset
set
CreditCard:
Card:Visa
Visa
Expiry: 12-04-06
Number:
Number:123-45-6789
123-45-6789
Expiry: 12-04-06
Expiry: 12-04-06
– The firewall decides whether an

HTTP message should pass through
– All decisions are based purely upon
the HTTP header. The firewall Firewall
FirewallRules
Rules&&Policies
Policies
Prohibit
Prohibitall
allPOSTs
POSTstotothe
never looks in the payload. This is geocities Web site.
geocities Web site.
the
fundamental!
– This message is rejected!
Basic Web Components:

Firewalls, Routers, Caches
• The Web is comprised of some basic components:
– Firewalls: these components decide what HTTP messages get out,
and what get in.
• These components enforce Web security.
– Routers: these components decide where to send HTTP messages.
• These components manage Web scaling.
– Caches: these components decide if a saved copy can be used.
• These components increase Web speed.
• All these components base their decisions and actions
purely upon information in the HTTP header.
"Thou shalt never peek inside the HTTP payload!"
Web Components Operate using

only Information found in the
HTTP Header!
i s !
k th
ec
HTTP Header Ch Component
Component
(firewall,
(firewall, router,
router, cache)
cache)
HTTP Payload
Web Message
Letter Analogy
• Why do Web components base their decisions solely
on information in the HTTP header?
• My company has a receiving warehouse. All letters
and packages go there first, and from there they are
distributed.
• No one in the receiving warehouse may look inside
any letter or package. All decisions about what to do
with letters and packages must be made purely by
looking at the addressing on the outside. Any attempt
to peek inside of letters and packages is a violation of
Federal Law (U.S.).
REST
What is REST?
" REST " was coined by Roy Fielding
in his Ph.D. dissertation [1] to describe
a design pattern for implementing
networked systems.
[1] http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm
Why is it called
"Representational State Transfer? "
http://www.boeing.com/aircraft/747
Client Resource
Fuel requirements
Maintenance schedule
...
Boeing747.html
The Client references a Web resource using a URL.

A representation of the resource is returned (in this case as an HTML document).
The representation (e.g., Boeing747.html) places the client in a new state.
When the client selects a hyperlink in Boeing747.html, it accesses another resource.
The new representation places the client application into yet another state.
Thus, the client application transfers state with each resource representation.
Representational State Transfer

"Representational State Transfer is intended to evoke an
image of how a well-designed Web application behaves:
a network of web pages (a virtual state-machine),
where the user progresses through an application
by selecting links (state transitions), resulting in the
next page (representing the next state of the application)
being transferred to the user and rendered for their use."
- Roy Fielding
Motivation for REST
The motivation for developing REST was to create

a design pattern for how the Web should work,
such that it could serve as the guiding framework
for the Web standards and designing Web services.
REST - Not a Standard

• REST is not a standard
– You will not see the W3C putting out a REST specification.
– You will not see IBM or Microsoft or Sun selling a REST
developer's toolkit.
• REST is just a design pattern
– You can't bottle up a pattern.
– You can only understand it and design your Web services to it.
• REST does prescribe the use of standards:
– HTTP
– URL
– XML/HTML/GIF/JPEG/etc. (Resource Representations)
– text/xml, text/html, image/gif, image/jpeg, etc. (Resource Types,
MIME Types)
Learn by Example
• The REST design pattern is best explained
with an example.
• I will present an example of a company
deploying three Web services using the
REST design pattern.
Parts Depot Web Services

• Parts Depot, Inc has deployed some web
services to enable its customers to:
– get a list of parts
– get detailed information about a particular part
– submit a Purchase Order (PO)
The REST way of Designing

the Web Services
HTTP GET request URL 1 Parts
Response List
(HTML/XML doc) HTTP response
Web Server
HTTP GET request URL 2 Part
Response
HTTP response Data
(HTML/XML doc)
PO
HTTP POST (HTML/XML)
URL 3
PO
URL to submitted PO HTTP response
Web Service for Clients to

Retrieve a List of Parts
• Service: Get a list of parts
– The web service makes available a URL
to a parts list resource. A client uses
this URL to get the parts list:
• http://www.parts-depot.com/parts
• Note that how the web service generates the
parts list is completely transparent to the
client. This is loose coupling.
REST Fundamentals
• Create a resource for every service.
• Identify each resource using a URL.
Data Returned - Parts List

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Parts>
<Part id="00345" href="http://www.parts-depot.com/parts/00345"/>
</Parts>
Note that the parts list has links to get detailed info about each part.
This is a key feature of the REST design pattern. The client transfers
from one state to the next by examining and choosing from among
the alternative URLs in the response document.
REST Fundamentals
• The data that a Web service returns
should link to other data. Thus,
design your data as a network of
information.
• Contrast with OO design, which
says to encapsulate information.
Web Service for Clients to

Retrieve a Particular Part
• Service: Get detailed information
about a particular part
– The web service makes available a URL to
each part resource. For example,
here's how a client requests a specific part:
• http://www.parts-depot.com/parts/00345
Data Returned - Part 00345

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Part>
<Part-ID>00345</Part-ID>
<Name>Widget-A</Name>
<Description>This part is used within the frap assembly</Description>
<Specification href="http://www.parts-depot.com/parts/00345/specification"/>
<UnitCost currency="USD">0.10</UnitCost>
<Quantity>10</Quantity>
</Part>
Again observe how this data is linked to still more data - the
specification for this part may be found by traversing the hyperlink.
Each response document allows the client to drill down to get
more detailed information.
Questions and Answers

Question
What if Parts Depot has a million parts, will there be a million
static pages? For example:
http://www.parts-depot/parts/000000
...
Answer
We need to distinguish between a logical and a physical entity.
The above URLs are logical. They express what resource is desired.
They do not identify a physical object. The advantage of using a

logical identifier (URL) is that changes to the underlying
implementation of the resource will be transparent to clients (that's
loose coupling!).
Quite likely, Parts Depot will store all parts data in a database.
Code at the Parts Depot web site will receive each logical URL
request, parse it to determine which part is being requested,
query the database, and generate the part response document
to return to the client.
Answer (cont.)
Contrast the above logical URLs with these physical URLs:
http://www.parts-depot/parts/000000.html
...
These URLs are clearly pointing to physical (HTML) pages.

If there are a million parts it will not be very attractive to have
a million static pages. Furthermore, changes to how these parts
data is represented will effect all clients that were using the old
representation.
Question
What if I have a complex query?
For example:
Show me all parts whose unit cost is under $0.50
and for which the quantity is less than 10
How would you do that with a simple URL?

Answer
For complex queries, Parts Depot will provide a service
(resource) for a client to retrieve a form that the client then fills
in.
When the client hits "Submit" the browser will gather up the
client’s responses and generate a URL based on the responses.
Thus, oftentimes the client doesn't generate the URL (think about
using Amazon - you start by entering the URL to amazon.com;
from then on you simply fill in forms, and the URLs are
automatically created for you).
Summary of the
REST Design Pattern
The REST Design Pattern

• Create a resource for every service.
• Uniquely identify each resource with a
logical URL.
• Design your information to link to other
information. That is, the information that a
resource returns to a client should link to
other information in a network of related
information.
The REST Design Pattern (cont.)

• All interactions between a client and a web
service are done with simple operations.
Most web interactions are done using HTTP
and just four operations:
– retrieve information (HTTP GET)
– create information (HTTP PUT)
– update information (HTTP POST)
– delete information (HTTP DELETE)
The REST Design Pattern (cont.)

• Remember that Web components (firewalls,
routers, caches) make their decisions based upon
information in the HTTP Header. Consequently,
the destination URL must be placed in the HTTP
header for Web components to operate
effectively.
– Conversely, it is anti-REST if the HTTP header
just identifies an intermediate destination and
the payload identifies the final destination.
References
References
• Paul Prescod has written several excellent
articles on REST:
– Second Generation Web Services
• http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/02/06/rest.html
– REST and the Real World
• http://www.xml.com/pub/a/2002/02/20/rest.html
– SOAP, REST and Interoperability
• http://www.prescod.net/rest/standardization.html
– Evaluating XML for Protocol Control Data
• http://www.prescod.net/xml/envelopes/

(Representational State Transfer) : Roger L. Costello Timothy D. Kehoe

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(Representational State Transfer) : Roger L. Costello Timothy D. Kehoe

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Copyright © [2005]. Roger L. Costello, Timothy D. Kehoe. All Rights Reserved.

The Web's Simple Set of

* Application Programming Interface

Web Basics: Retrieving

- The user types in at his browser: http://www.amazon.com

Web Basics: Updating

This information (the form data) is called the payload.

Web Basics: Simple Set of

Fundamental Web Components

Web Component: Firewalls

– The firewall decides whether an

Basic Web Components:

Web Components Operate using

The Client references a Web resource using a URL.

Representational State Transfer

Motivation for REST

The motivation for developing REST was to create

REST - Not a Standard

Parts Depot Web Services

The REST way of Designing

Web Service for Clients to

Data Returned - Parts List

Web Service for Clients to

Data Returned - Part 00345

Questions and Answers

They do not identify a physical object. The advantage of using a

These URLs are clearly pointing to physical (HTML) pages.

How would you do that with a simple URL?

The REST Design Pattern

The REST Design Pattern (cont.)

The REST Design Pattern (cont.)

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