How a RESTful API represents resources

Formats, linking, and versioning are important in well-formed RESTful APIs.

In this series of posts on RESTful API design, we started from the spec of a bike rental application and we're moving towards a fully functional API design. In the first article, we talked about how to identify the URL and HTTP method pairs we would need to implement the server-side API for the application. Then, in the second part, we explored how our server should react to incoming requests and communicate its state with status codes. We also learned how HTTP implements authentication, caching, and optimistic locking.

Now, in the third and last part of this example-guided tour, we will cover some of the most controversial topics among the REST community. They are actively debated and are always on the spot in the discussions about RESTful API design: resource representations, Media Types, HATEOAS, and versioning.

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