Why Use “REST” Architecture for Web Services?

Editor's Notes

• #2: Title: Utilize REST!I’ll start this presentation by asking you all.. How many of you does not know Twitter?Facebook?Amazon? Well as I expect, most of you know all the so called big boys in web service business. And how many of you think that their web service not extensible and not scalable? Yup, again most of you think that they’re extensible and scalable. And have you ever wondered by they can build such a system ? One of the reasons is they are using REST for the WS architecture?Now the next question is why REST? Why do the big boys use REST?The answer is..
• #3: Why REST over SOAP?Because it needs less hassle to provide more things!Yes it is “Less is more!” remember it! And let me give you more explanation
• #4: Shorter responses and request compared to SOAP.SOAP believer argues that strong typing of request and response are necessary, practically not. Client and Server in REST are designed such that they know the data type of request and response before hand, so strong type is not necesssary
• #5: a four- or five-digit stock quote in a SOAP response could require more than 10 times as many bytes as would the same response in RESTRead more: http://geeknizer.com/rest-vs-soap-using-http-choosing-the-right-webservice-protocol/#ixzz1oC9XNOgyThat means REST is less bandwidth requirement which implies more speed for given content.
• #6: Currency converter -> convert from USD with value of 100 and the target conversion is GBPWell known URI interface -> easy to be invoked by client -> easy to extend -> easy to modify to access certain resources in web server by the user of web service, ie. We can easily create a table of conversion rate by modifying the url and create a html page which invoke the modified url for each cell in the tableLess Complexity leads to More Simplicity and Flexibility
• #7: Currency converter -> convert from USD with value of 100 and the target conversion is GBPWell known URI interface -> easy to be invoked by client -> easy to extend -> easy to modify to access certain resources in web server by the user of web service, ie. We can easily create a table of conversion rate by modifying the url and create a html page which invoke the modified url for each cell in the tableLess Complexity leads to More Simplicity and Flexibility
• #8: Does not have envelope like SOAPFirewall can interpret the intent of the http request by analyzing the HTTP command used in the request. For example, a GET request can always be considered safe because it can’t, by definition, modify any data. It can only query data.A typical SOAP request, on the other hand, will use POST to communicate with a given service. And without looking into the SOAP envelope—a task that is both resource-consuming and not built into most firewalls—there’s no way to know whether that request simply wants to query data or delete entire tables from the database.
• #9: Does not have envelope like SOAPFirewall can interpret the intent of the http request by analyzing the HTTP command used in the request. For example, a GET request can always be considered safe because it can’t, by definition, modify any data. It can only query data.A typical SOAP request, on the other hand, will use POST to communicate with a given service. And without looking into the SOAP envelope—a task that is both resource-consuming and not built into most firewalls—there’s no way to know whether that request simply wants to query data or delete entire tables from the database.