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API 101: What Is a REST API?

Blog post from Postman

Post Details
Company
Date Published
Author
Kin Lane
Word Count
672
Company Posts That Month
11
Language
English
Hacker News Points
-
Post removed?
No
Summary

REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is a widely used software architectural style for designing web APIs, known for its simplicity and uniformity in making digital resources like data, content, and media accessible through web URLs. This approach allows developers to define, locate, and manage resources across various applications through standard HTTP methods such as GET, POST, PUT, and DELETE, enabling operations like retrieval, addition, updating, and deletion of resources. REST is not a strict specification but a guiding principle that promotes organizing digital resources and operations, facilitating collaboration and integration across web and mobile platforms. For example, Facebook employs REST principles in its Graph API, allowing authenticated users to access and manipulate their profiles and other resources in various formats, such as HTML and JSON, using simple web requests. REST continues to be popular because it leverages the existing web infrastructure to provide a standardized method for sharing and managing digital capabilities across diverse online environments.

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