REST is a very flexible and at the same time, powerful methodology used for software architecture design. But this flexibility gives more space for design mistakes. Unlike SOAP that can transfer data via multiple protocols, REST interaction is done completely via the HTTP protocol. It uses HTTP verbs (or methods) to express the intention of operations.
Most commonly used verbs in the REST world are:
- GET
- POST
- PUT
- DELETE
In many cases, developers have to map those verbs on CRUD operations. Honestly, this mapping is quite a difficult task itself and moreover has no single definition from the REST side. The first and the last verbs are pretty obvious and self-explanatory: data retrieval and data removal. But one very popular problem is related to the remaining POST and PUT. In general, very often there is a decision problem: which operation to use for data insert and which – for data update.
Leave a Comment