Experience with Restful Services

Introduction 

A web service is a collection of open protocols and standards used for exchanging data between applications or systems. Software applications written in various programming languages and running on various platforms can use web services to exchange data over computer networks like the Internet in a manner similar to inter-process communication on a single computer. This interoperability (e.g., between Java and Python, or Windows and Linux applications) is due to the use of open standards.

Web services based on REST Architecture are known as RESTful web services. These web services uses HTTP methods to implement the concept of REST architecture. A RESTful web service usually defines a URI, Uniform Resource Identifier a service, provides resource representation such as JSON and set of HTTP Methods

REST architecture

REST stands for Representational State Transfer. REST is web standards based architecture and uses HTTP Protocol. It revolves around resource where every component is a resource and a resource is accessed by a common interface using HTTP standard methods. REST was first introduced by Roy Fielding in 2000.

In REST architecture, a REST Server simply provides access to resources and REST client accesses and modifies the resources. Here each resource is identified by URIs/ global IDs. REST uses various representation to represent a resource like text, JSON, XML. JSON is the most popular one.

HTTP methods

Following four HTTP methods are commonly used in REST based architecture.

• GET − Provides a read only access to a resource.
• POST − Used to create a new resource.
• DELETE − Used to remove a resource.
• PUT − Used to update an existing resource or create a new resource.

APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE (API)

API is the acronym for Application Programming Interface, which is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. Each time you use an app like Facebook, send an instant message, or check the weather on your phone, you’re using an API.

Modern API

Over the years, what an “API” is has often described any sort of generic connectivity interface to an application. More recently, however, the modern API has taken on some characteristics that make them extraordinarily valuable and useful:

• Modern APIs adhere to standards (typically HTTP and REST), that are developer-friendly, easily accessible and understood broadly
• They are treated more like products than code. They are designed for consumption for specific audiences (e.g., mobile developers), they are documented, and they are versioned in a way that users can have certain expectations of its maintenance and lifecycle.
• Because they are much more standardized, they have a much stronger discipline for security and governance, as well as monitored and managed for performance and scale
• As any other piece of productized software, the modern API has its own software development lifecycle (SDLC) of designing, testing, building, managing, and versioning.  Also, modern APIs are well documented for consumption and versioning.

RESTFUL API

While REST - or Representational State Transfer - can be used over nearly any protocol, when used for web APIs it typically takes advantage of HTTP. This means that developers have no need to install additional software or libraries when creating a REST API. One of the key advantages of REST APIs is that they provide a great deal of flexibility.

BENEFITS OF REST APIs

• Lightweight One of the main benefits of REST APIs is that they rely on the HTTP standard, which means it’s format-agonistic and you can use XML, JSON, HTML, etc. This makes REST APIs fast, and lightweight — which is necessary for mobile app projects, internet of things devices, and more.
• Independent

REST API DESIGN

EST or RESTful API design (Representational State Transfer) is designed to take advantage of existing protocols. While REST can be used over nearly any protocol, it usually takes advantage of HTTP when used for Web APIs.

Advantages of REST API

• REST API is easy to understand and learn, due to its simplicity, known API.
• With REST API, being able to organize complicated applications & makes it easy to use resources.
• The high load can be managed with help out of HTTP proxy server & cache.
• REST API is easy to explore and discover.
• It makes it simple for new clients to work on other applications, whether it is designed specifically for purpose or not.
• Use standard HTTP procedure call- outs to retrieve data and requests.
• REST API depends on codes, can use it to synchronize data with a website without any complications.
• Users can avail access to the same standard objects and data model when compared to SOAP-based web services.
• Brings flexibility formats by serializing data in XML or JSON format.
• Allows Standard-based protection with the use of OAuth protocols to verify your REST requests.

Disadvantages or Challenges in REST

Lack of state: most web applications require stateful mechanisms. Suppose you purchase a website which has a mechanism to have a shopping cart. It is required to know the number of items in the shopping cart before the actual purchase is made. This burden of maintaining the state lies on the client, which makes the client application heavy and difficult to maintain.

Last of security: REST doest impose security such as SOAP. That is the reason REST is appropriate for public URLs, but it is not good for confidential data passage between client and server. 

Conclusion

With the help of REST, API complications reduce to zero, and things are easier with fewer resources in context. It can manage resources with ease and with few operations. 

Scope @ N9 IT Solutions:

1. N9 IT Solutions is a leading IT development and consulting firm providing a broad array of customized solutions to clients throughout the United States. 
2. It got established primarily with an aim to provide consulting and IT services in today’s dynamic environment.
3. N9 IT also offers consulting services in many emerging areas like Java/J2ee, Cloud Computing, Database Solutions, DevOps, ERP, Mobility, Big Data, Application Development, Infrastructure Managed Services, Quality Assurance, and Testing.

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