As a vast network of interconnected devices on the web sets the stage for the future of human cognition, RESTful APIs operate quietly behind the scenes. Representational State Transfer (REST) defines the architectural style of the web to produce distributed, loosely coupled systems that enable and extend this network.
Highly recommended for software architects and technical leaders interested in core philosophy, this book is not just another technical manual. Readers move beyond basic API endpoints to engage with the technical rationale in REST's constraints: client-server, stateless, cacheable, layered, uniform interface, and code on demand. The author examines interactions between the building blocks of the web to explain the why behind these architectural elements, not just the how. For students, engineers, or software developers actively working on REST web services, this book invites you to think like an architect. It treats API design as a serious discipline of software architecture, based on first principles.
By the end, readers gain the expertise needed to solve the most complex API design problems through a comprehensive skill set grounded in the timeless architecture of the web itself. This book provides an essential foundation to create APIs that stand the test of time.
What you will learn
● How and why REST became so popular.
● Principle of addressability, a close look at the API surface.
● Understanding HTTP methods intentionally.
● Improving resources step-by-step.
● Advantages of self-guided systems.
● Using layers to protect REST APIs from attacks.
● Architectural strategies that win the future.
Who this book is for
This book is for aspiring and experienced software architects, engineers, and API designers with a working background in web development and HTTP who wish to master the principles of RESTful API design.
Table of Contents
1. Breaking Points
2. Resource Identification
3. Resource Manipulation
4. Resource Representation
5. Resource State Management
6. API Security
7. Performance and Scale
8. Further Readings
