what is rest api | rest api

1 videos • 0 views • by Programming Academic REST API, or Representational State Transfer API, is an architectural style for designing networked applications. It is commonly used in web development to enable communication and data exchange between different software systems. REST is based on a client-server model, where the client, typically a web browser or a mobile application, sends requests to the server, which then processes the requests and sends back a response. The communication between the client and the server is stateless, meaning that each request from the client contains all the necessary information for the server to understand and process it, without relying on any stored state on the server side. REST APIs use HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) as the underlying protocol for communication. HTTP methods, such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE, are used to perform different operations on the resources exposed by the API. For example, the GET method is used to retrieve data, the POST method is used to create new resources, and the DELETE method is used to remove resources. REST APIs represent resources as the fundamental concept. Resources can be any piece of information or functionality that the API exposes, such as a user, a product, or an order. Each resource is uniquely identified by a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier), which serves as its address on the web. API endpoints are defined for each resource, specifying the URL path and the HTTP method required to interact with that resource. For example, to retrieve a specific user's information, the API might have an endpoint like /users/{user_id} where {user_id} is a placeholder for the actual user identifier. REST APIs commonly use JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) as the data format for representing the resources in the requests and responses. JSON is a lightweight and easy-to-parse format that is widely supported by programming languages. By following the principles of REST, such as statelessness, resource-oriented design, and using HTTP methods, developers can create scalable and interoperable web APIs that can be easily consumed by a variety of clients.