RESTful Web Services
by Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby · first published 2007
52% recommend40% neutral8% critical
Why HN recommends it
Explains why REST works and how to design APIs around resources with multiple representations, not remote function calls. Includes an HTTP overview, design patterns for common pitfalls, and S3 as a worked example.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Shows how to use the REST architectural style to create web sites that can be used by computers as well as machines, providing basic rules for using REST and real-life examples of such Web services.
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If you're learning about REST, do it right and make this book your bible - it's brilliant: http://www.amazon.com/Restful-Web-Services-Leonard-Richardso...
on “How Not to write a "REST" API” ↗…wonder why the meaning has become so blurry? I was under the impression that the bible on this subject was the 2007 book by Leonard Richardson, Sam Ruby (and a nice forward by David Heinemeier Hansson): RESTful Web Services http://www.amazon.com/RESTful-Web-Services-Leonard-Richardso... However, reading the comments on this page, I have the impression that many people here have never heard of that book.
on “The Restful CookBook” ↗What are the significant savings that mean it's worth misusing GET? Is REST really that hard? _RESTful Web Services_, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/9780596529260/
on “Paul Buchheit: The dogmatic programmer - when software becomes religion” ↗…read it and was surprised at how readable I found it (never mind being a dissertation). http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm What is also really good is Richardson and Ruby's "RESTful Web Services" book. They coined the term "Resource Oriented Architecture" to describe a specific REST design implementation and to side-step a religious war on what is and is not REST.
on “How I explained REST to my wife” ↗If you are interested in REST API's, the best I've ever read is "RESTful Web Services" by Richardson & Ruby.
on “Ask HN: Best books in API design” ↗I've often thought of creating a "Cult of HTTP" that goes door to door and hands out pamphlet versions of Chapter 8 of "RESTful Web Services" to web developers. http://my.safaribooksonline.com/book/web-development/web-ser...
on “PUT vs POST in REST” ↗S3 is a superb example of a REST API, and is a key example in the RESTful Web Services book.
on “Amazon proves that REST doesn’t matter for Cloud APIs” ↗I like the RESTful Web Services book because it discussed how to design an API and why, not just the functions you'd need to wire an API together.
on “2 Questions about RoR” ↗Read the O'Reilly RESTful Web Services book. It's a great explanation of why REST is good, and has a bunch of design patterns for the major pit falls. You could also look at some of the tricks we use at Yahoo. One thing I think is important…
on “Ask HN: API Design?” ↗I am looking for a hands-on book on Java webservices. I found two : 1. Java Web Services: Up and Running - good introduction 2. RESTful Web Services - good but talks only about REST. Can you recommend any other books/resources for SOAP based Java webservices ?
on “Ask HN:Best Java Webservices books” ↗Restful Web Services - great book and really opened up my thinking about how things behind web services can "resources" with different representations - rather than remote function calls. The original "Java In a Nutshell"…
on “Which programming book you just couldn’t stop reading from start to end?” ↗The book "RESTful Web Services" [1] has a really good overview of HTTP in general and some hints on resource oriented architectures. [1] http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596529260.do
on “Ask HN: Are there any basic primers for Comp Sci?” ↗I would recommend this book, http://toptalkedbooks.com/books/xyiEMg/RESTful-Web-Services-...
on “Ask HN: What are some sources to learn about microservices architecture?” ↗I'm only just starting on reading O'Reilly's "RESTful Web Services" (Richardson & Ruby), and I've but skimmed the Felding dissertation, but the URI doesn't strike me as particularly RESTful. In particular, custom verbs are embedded within the querystring (a=blob, a=blob_plain,…
…http://guides.rubyonrails.org/form_helpers.html section 2.4 "There are two noncontroversial uses for overloaded POST. The first is to simulate HTTP's uniform interface for clients like web browsers that don't support PUT or DELETE" - RESTful Web Services, Leonard Richardson & Sam Ruby.
on “How RESTful is Your API?” ↗