Question

So I just started digging into web tech, and I’m stuck on the concept of REST. Could someone clarify REST by giving me an example of what isn’t rest?

So, as far as I can tell, REST requires the server and client to both be in the same state at the end of every request-response HTTP transfer. Does that sound right?

My understanding is that, if a client stores state information locally (which the server does not know about), that service is NOT rest.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

For web services, SOAP is an example of something that is not REST because the implementer of the service creates it’s own verbs via methods, rather than the standard GET, POST, etc. This article explains it somewhat:

• Wikipedia REST Article
• Wikipedia SOAP Article