Representational State Transfer (REST) is a software architecture that imposes conditions on how an API should work. REST was initially created as a guideline to manage communication on a complex network like the internet. You can use REST-based architecture to support high-performing and reliable communication at scale. You can easily implement and modify it, bringing visibility and cross-platform portability to any API system.
API developers can design APIs using several different architectures. APIs that follow the REST architectural style are called REST APIs. Web services that implement REST architecture are called RESTful web services. The term RESTful API generally refers to RESTful web APIs. However, you can use the terms REST API and RESTful API interchangeably.
REST stands for Representational State Transfer, and it is a software architectural style that is commonly used to build web services. RESTful APIs are a type of web service that follows the principles of REST architecture.
RESTful APIs use HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) as the underlying communication protocol, which is the same protocol used to deliver web pages. HTTP provides a standardized set of methods (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) that can be used to interact with resources (e.g. data, images, files) on a web server.
In a RESTful API, each resource is identified by a unique URL (Uniform Resource Locator), and clients can use HTTP methods to request or modify the state of the resource. For example, a client can send a GET request to retrieve data from a resource, or a POST request to create a new resource.
RESTful APIs are designed to be stateless, meaning that each request from a client contains all the information necessary to complete the request. This makes them scalable and flexible, as they can handle many requests from different clients simultaneously.
Overall, RESTful APIs are a widely used and flexible approach for building web services that allow for easy communication between different applications and systems.