Books & Videos

RESTful Web Services

Release Date: December 2008

Pages: 448

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"Every developer working with the Web needs to read this book." -- David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of the Rails framework

"RESTful Web Services finally provides a practical roadmap for constructing services that embrace the Web, instead of trying to route around it." -- Adam Trachtenberg, PHP author and EBay Web Services Evangelist

You've built web sites that can be used by humans. But can you also build web sites that are usable by machines? That's where the future lies, and that's what RESTful Web Services shows you how to do. The World Wide Web is the most popular distributed application in history, and Web services and mashups have turned it into a powerful distributed computing platform. But today's web service technologies have lost sight of the simplicity that made the Web successful. They don't work like the Web, and they're missing out on its advantages.

This book puts the "Web" back into web services. It shows how you can connect to the programmable web with the technologies you already use every day. The key is REST, the architectural style that drives the Web. This book:

Emphasizes the power of basic Web technologies -- the HTTP application protocol, the URI naming standard, and the XML markup language
Introduces the Resource-Oriented Architecture (ROA), a common-sense set of rules for designing RESTful web services
Shows how a RESTful design is simpler, more versatile, and more scalable than a design based on Remote Procedure Calls (RPC)
Includes real-world examples of RESTful web services, like Amazon's Simple Storage Service and the Atom Publishing Protocol
Discusses web service clients for popular programming languages
Shows how to implement RESTful services in three popular frameworks -- Ruby on Rails, Restlet (for Java), and Django (for Python)
Focuses on practical issues: how to design and implement RESTful web services and clients

This is the first book that applies the REST design philosophy to real web services. It sets down the best practices you need to make your design a success, and the techniques you need to turn your design into working code. You can harness the power of the Web for programmable applications: you just have to work with the Web instead of against it. This book shows you how.

Chapter 1 The Programmable Web and Its Inhabitants
1. Kinds of Things on the Programmable Web
2. HTTP: Documents in Envelopes
3. Method Information
4. Scoping Information
5. The Competing Architectures
6. Technologies on the Programmable Web
7. Leftover Terminology
Chapter 2 Writing Web Service Clients
1. Web Services Are Web Sites
2. del.icio.us: The Sample Application
3. Making the Request: HTTP Libraries
4. Processing the Response: XML Parsers
5. JSON Parsers: Handling Serialized Data
6. Clients Made Easy with WADL
Chapter 3 What Makes RESTful Services Different?
1. Introducing the Simple Storage Service
2. Object-Oriented Design of S3
3. Resources
4. HTTP Response Codes
5. An S3 Client
6. Request Signing and Access Control
7. Using the S3 Client Library
8. Clients Made Transparent with ActiveResource
9. Parting Words
Chapter 4 The Resource-Oriented Architecture
1. Resource-Oriented What Now?
2. What’s a Resource?
3. URIs
4. Addressability
5. Statelessness
6. Representations
7. Links and Connectedness
8. The Uniform Interface
9. That’s It!
Chapter 5 Designing Read-Only Resource-Oriented Services
1. Resource Design
2. Turning Requirements Into Read-Only Resources
3. Figure Out the Data Set
4. Split the Data Set into Resources
5. Name the Resources
6. Design Your Representations
7. Link the Resources to Each Other
8. The HTTP Response
9. Conclusion
Chapter 6 Designing Read/Write Resource-Oriented Services
1. User Accounts as Resources
2. Custom Places
3. A Look Back at the Map Service
Chapter 7 A Service Implementation
1. A Social Bookmarking Web Service
2. Figuring Out the Data Set
3. Resource Design
4. Design the Representation(s) Accepted from the Client
5. Design the Representation(s) Served to the Client
6. Connect Resources to Each Other
7. What’s Supposed to Happen?
8. What Might Go Wrong?
9. Controller Code
10. Model Code
11. What Does the Client Need to Know?
Chapter 8 REST and ROA Best Practices
1. Resource-Oriented Basics
2. The Generic ROA Procedure
3. Addressability
4. State and Statelessness
5. Connectedness
6. The Uniform Interface
7. This Stuff Matters
8. Resource Design
9. URI Design
10. Outgoing Representations
11. Incoming Representations
12. Service Versioning
13. Permanent URIs Versus Readable URIs
14. Standard Features of HTTP
15. Faking PUT and DELETE
16. The Trouble with Cookies
17. Why Should a User Trust the HTTP Client?
Chapter 9 The Building Blocks of Services
1. Representation Formats
2. Prepackaged Control Flows
3. Hypermedia Technologies
Chapter 10 The Resource-Oriented Architecture Versus Big Web Services
1. What Problems Are Big Web Services Trying to Solve?
2. SOAP
3. WSDL
4. UDDI
5. Security
6. Reliable Messaging
7. Transactions
8. BPEL, ESB, and SOA
9. Conclusion
Chapter 11 Ajax Applications as REST Clients
1. From AJAX to Ajax
2. The Ajax Architecture
3. A del.icio.us Example
4. The Advantages of Ajax
5. The Disadvantages of Ajax
6. REST Goes Better
7. Making the Request
8. Handling the Response
9. JSON
10. Don’t Bogart the Benefits of REST
11. Cross-Browser Issues and Ajax Libraries
12. Subverting the Browser Security Model
Chapter 12 Frameworks for RESTful Services
1. Ruby on Rails
2. Restlet
3. Django

Appendix Some Resources for REST and Some RESTful Resources
1. Standards and Guides
2. Services You Can Use
Appendix The HTTP Response Code Top 42
1. Three to Seven Status Codes: The Bare Minimum
2. 1xx: Meta
3. 2xx: Success
4. 3xx: Redirection
5. 4xx: Client-Side Error
6. 5xx: Server-Side Error
Appendix The HTTP Header Top Infinity
1. Standard Headers
2. Nonstandard Headers
Colophon

Books & Videos

RESTful Web Services

Read on Safari with a 10-day trial

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Programmable Web and Its Inhabitants

Kinds of Things on the Programmable Web

HTTP: Documents in Envelopes

Method Information

Scoping Information

The Competing Architectures

Technologies on the Programmable Web

Leftover Terminology

Chapter 2 Writing Web Service Clients

Web Services Are Web Sites

del.icio.us: The Sample Application

Making the Request: HTTP Libraries

Processing the Response: XML Parsers

JSON Parsers: Handling Serialized Data

Clients Made Easy with WADL

Chapter 3 What Makes RESTful Services Different?

Introducing the Simple Storage Service

Object-Oriented Design of S3

Resources

HTTP Response Codes

An S3 Client

Request Signing and Access Control

Using the S3 Client Library

Clients Made Transparent with ActiveResource

Parting Words

Chapter 4 The Resource-Oriented Architecture

Resource-Oriented What Now?

What’s a Resource?

URIs

Addressability

Statelessness

Representations

Links and Connectedness

The Uniform Interface

That’s It!

Chapter 5 Designing Read-Only Resource-Oriented Services

Resource Design

Turning Requirements Into Read-Only Resources

Figure Out the Data Set

Split the Data Set into Resources

Name the Resources

Design Your Representations

Link the Resources to Each Other

The HTTP Response

Conclusion

Chapter 6 Designing Read/Write Resource-Oriented Services

User Accounts as Resources

Custom Places

A Look Back at the Map Service

Chapter 7 A Service Implementation

A Social Bookmarking Web Service

Figuring Out the Data Set

Resource Design

Design the Representation(s) Accepted from the Client

Design the Representation(s) Served to the Client

Connect Resources to Each Other

What’s Supposed to Happen?

What Might Go Wrong?

Controller Code

Model Code

What Does the Client Need to Know?

Chapter 8 REST and ROA Best Practices

Resource-Oriented Basics

The Generic ROA Procedure

Addressability

State and Statelessness

Connectedness

The Uniform Interface

This Stuff Matters

Resource Design

URI Design

Outgoing Representations

Incoming Representations

Service Versioning

Permanent URIs Versus Readable URIs

Standard Features of HTTP