A REST API (short for Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface) is a way two separate pieces of software can talk over the internet using standard rules. At its core, it lets ...

Despite REST's position as the de facto standard in web services development, it's not without some shortcomings. Data exchange formats can be bloated, and it lacks standards for API documentation and ...

Think of a REST API like a waiter in a restaurant. You (an app) tell the waiter what you want (your request), and the waiter goes to the kitchen (the server) to get it for you. REST is just a set of ...

How do you access a RESTful web service? That depends on what you're trying to accomplish. If you just want to test connectivity, a terminal-based utility like curl is a great RESTful web service ...

REST is one of the most influential ideas in distributed architecture. Here's why it matters and how to understand RESTful services in theory and practice. REST, or Representational State Transfer, is ...

Part 2 of this four-part series on Java SE Web services showed how to use the JAX-WS API to develop SOAP-based Web services. JAX-WS also supports RESTful-based Web services, which this article shows ...