Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architecture style that common in web application programming. Developed in tandem with HTTP/1.1, it encourages a representation of application object state within the underlying HTTP protocol transactions and an adherence to the semantics of the underlying HTTP verbs when applied to higher-level application state.
Simplistically, one of the key principles is that one should use the HTTP verbs in a manner that is consistent with the application object state. The table illustrates the different HTTP verbs and their specific applications:
HTTP Verb |
Application |
GET |
Querying or reading the state of an object, given some sort of index |
PUT |
Setting or directly writing the state of an object based on an index |
POST |
Creating a new object within an underlying collection; or otherwise calling a procedure that... |