What is a RESTful API?

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a fancy way of saying CRUD over HTTP. What this means is, when you use a REST API, you have a uniform means to create, read, and update data using simple HTTP URLs with a standard set of HTTP verbs. The most basic form of a REST API will accept one of the HTTP verbs at a URL and return some kind of data as a response.

Typically, a REST API GET request will always return some kind of data, such as JSON, XML, HTML, or plain text. A POST or PUT request to a RESTful API URL will accept data to create or update. The URL for a RESTful API is known as an endpoint, and when working with these endpoints, it is typically said that you are consuming them. The standard HTTP verbs used while interfacing with REST APIs include:

• GET: This retrieves data
• POST: This submits data for a new record
• PUT: This submits data to update an existing record
• PATCH: This submits a date to update only specific parts of an existing record
• DELETE: This deletes a...