HTML interfaces

While the strict definition of APIs works for interfaces that are designed to be accessed by other programs, it's good to spend a bit of time talking about the basics of how to create a successful human interface. For this purpose, we will talk mainly about HTML interfaces, aimed at being used by the end user in a browser.

Most of the concepts that we will deal with apply to other kinds of human interfaces, such as GUIs or mobile applications.

HTML technologies are highly related to RESTful ones because they were developed in parallel during the early days of the internet. Typically, they are presented intertwined in modern web applications.

Traditional HTML interfaces

The way traditional web interfaces work is through HTTP requests, only using the GET and POST methods. GET retrieves a page from the server, while POST is paired with some form that submits data to the server.

This was a prerequisite, as browsers only...