REST and its Discontents
by Luke Francl
Sun, Oct 01, 2006
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Representational State Transfer or REST has gained a lot of mind share as an alternative to SOAP-based web services. REST describes a resource-based architecture that mirrors the web. "It's just XML over HTTP" is a common refrain. But as you did deeper, REST becomes more complicated. Debates about the "right" and "wrong" ways to do REST get hot and heavy fast. What are the advantages and disadvantages of REST? Who's doing REST right and who's doing it wrong? We'll cut through the chaff, and show you how you can use REST in your web services.
About the Author
Luke Francl is a senior software developer at Ancept, where he works on the Ancept Media Server (AMS) enterprise digital asset management system. He recently led the implementation of a REST API for AMS. Luke is also involved in the Ruby Users of Minnesota and is an avid Ruby on Rails programmer, and developed the Central Standard Tech blog aggregator/events calendar.