By Peter Bell

A REST-like Administrative API

Posted At : November 15, 2006 9:01 PM | Posted By : Peter Bell
Related Categories: REST
Most of the websites I create require content management, with pages that define a context for multiple dynamic content areas, so on the whole a REST style interface with unique URIs for individual content items and actions on them aren't of much use.

However, for the associated administrative system for managing content items, a REST-like API (not religiously RESTful - see my earlier post for an explanation of why) would solve a bunch of problems. It would make it easy to define the URIs for any given action in a consistent way across applications and would also allow for the testing and calling of ALL model methods using a single, very simple controller. Over time I could also add support for multiple response formats so this could be the basis for everything from lightweight scaffolding to a remote API for Flex applications.

The first step was to come up with the necessary URI templates for defining access to both single objects and collections of 0..n objects (comparable to the difference between a DAO and a Gateway). I decided on different templates for the two to make it clear whether you were operating on a single object or a collection . . .

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An Appropriate level of REST

Posted At : November 15, 2006 8:48 PM | Posted By : Peter Bell
Related Categories: REST
I've been thinking a lot about URLs and URIs recently. REST is a religion approach that focuses on using unique URLs for interacting with content items.

REST purists will tell you that you only need four verbs (corresponding to CRU and D) and that to get the caching/performance benefits of REST, all requests must be completely stateless (no cookies, sessions or other user specific identifiers - if you want personalized content you should create one URI per user for that content item).

Realists will point out that trying to hack together a real world system with those limitations (especially one that needs more than just GETs) isn’t worth the trouble and that a "REST-like" approach makes more sense.

In case you hadn't guessed, I'm a "REST realist". David Heinemeier Hansson hasn't been able to convince me that you only need four verbs. Anyone else out there using a strict four-verb syntax successfully for a complex system? I get that you could turn additional verbs into "undiscovered objects" but just don't see the point. Any thoughts?

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