HTTP REST

Leverage the richness of HTTP status codes

If you’re not a REST expert, you probably use the same HTTP codes over and over in your responses, mostly 200, 404, and 500. If using authentication, you might perhaps add 401 and 403; if using redirects 301 and 302, that might be all. But the range of possible status codes is much broader than that and can improve semantics a lot. While many discussions about REST focus on entities and methods, using the correct response status codes can make your API stand out. 201: Created Many appli

REST Web APIs HATEOAS HAL

The quest for REST

Since I started working for Apache APISIX, I have tried to deepen my understanding of REST via various means. Did you read my review of API Design Patterns book? In the current literature, REST is generally promoted as the best thing since sliced bread. Yet, it comes with lots of challenges. In 2010(!), Martin Fowler wrote a post on the glory of REST. He lists three steps for an API to become truly REST: In each of these steps, issues lurk. This blog post focuses on listing some of them an

API lifecycle management REST

Evolving your RESTful APIs, a step-by-step approach

Designing an intuitive, user-friendly RESTful API is a tough job. It might already be a massive task if it’s your first attempt. Planning for the lifecycle management of your API is likely to be an afterthought. But it’s possible anyway: in this post, I’d like to propose a no-nonsense approach to evolving your APIs, even if it was not planned. The initial situation Let’s consider a sample application that says 'Hello' when using it. > curl http://org.apisix/hello Hello world > curl