CODEWITHSUNDEEP
rest
tellob
tellob

Reputation: 1250

Is REST suitable for web applications?

As I read about the REST interface, i came across a sentence of the developer that says:

The REST interface is designed to be efficient for large-grain hypermedia data transfer, optimizing for the common case of the Web, but resulting in an interface that is not optimal for other forms of architectural interaction.

Source: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/rest_arch_style.htm

What are large-grain hypermedia transfers?

Normally a website consists out of multiple small files: HTML, CSS, JS and maybe some multimedia files like videos.

So is REST suitable for standard web applications or just good for thinks like transferring videos in Megabyte size to a client?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 181

Answers (3)

sschrass
sschrass

Reputation: 7166

REST is an architectural paradigm and about accessing resources via URI. It is up to you what a resource should be. It could be a html, or it could be audio/video, or .pdf and so on.

And it is the job of the client to handle those resources, the webservice just says "here is it".

Upvotes: 2

Chris Allen
Chris Allen

Reputation: 605

REST is used for any data transfer ranging in size from a simple form submission and upwards. So yes, it is suitable for standard web applications.

Today, the architecture where it is not optimal, is really for transferring data chunks that are smaller than a transaction. For example if a user ticks several check-boxes on a page, current designers will try to initiate just one REST data transfer, not several.

Upvotes: 1

user1907906
user1907906

Reputation:

'large-grain' is not the same as 'large':

not having a fine texture; "coarse-grained wood"; "large-grained sand" [syn: coarse-grained]

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/large-grained

REST might not be the optiomal solution for scenarions that are better modeled with messages, for example.

BTW: Where does your quote come from?

Upvotes: 2

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