A RESTful API is an application programming interface that conforms to the constraints of the REST architectural style. REST stands for Representational State Transfer and was created by computer scientist Roy Fielding. RESTful APIs allow for interaction with RESTful web services and are used to exchange information securely over the internet between two computer systems. RESTful APIs are defined with the following aspects:
- The resource identifier (URI) of one or several resources used as starting points, sometimes called endpoints or entry points.
- The encoding of all possible resource representations (which will include representation of the data and of the hypermedia links for state transitions).
- The possible state transitions and where they can be initiated.
RESTful APIs communicate via HTTP requests to perform standard database functions like creating, reading, updating, and deleting records (also known as CRUD) . RESTful APIs use existing HTTP methodologies defined by the RFC 2616 protocol, such as GET to retrieve a resource, PUT to change the state of or update a resource, POST to create that resource, and DELETE to remove it. RESTful APIs are based on representational state transfer (REST), which is an architectural style and approach to communications often used in web services development. The benefits of RESTful APIs include scalability, reliability, and efficient software communication standards.
