Minimalist Guide to REST API

Introduction to RESTful API

Rei
Published in
4 min readJan 16, 2022

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What is RESTful API?

It is a set of rules that allow programs to talk to each other. The developer creates the API on the server and allows the client to talk to it.

Terminology

  • API: Application Program Interface
  • REST: REpresentational State Transfer

Why we use RESTful API?

  • To expose an independent infrastructure to the outside. Authorized or unauthorized.
  • To perform operations that require powerful hardware on servers rather than clients.
  • In order for different applications to communicate with each other with a common data structure.
  • To ensure the technological independence of clients. (Like Desktop, Mobile, Web, Console, Embedded, etc.)
  • In order to respond to the needs of different clients with different endpoints. (Like XML, JSON, gRPC etc.)
  • Data Security

Anatomy Of A Request

  • Endpoint (Route)
  • HTTP Method
  • HTTP Headers
  • Data (Body / Message)

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