REST API Best Practices-Comprehensive REST API Guide

Example

Using URIs like /orders to access orders resource.

Scenario

In an online shopping application, accessing the list of orders by sending a GET request to /orders, and accessing a specific order by sending a GET request to /orders/{orderId}.

Example

Including all necessary information in each request, without relying on server-stored user sessions.

Scenario

A financial reporting tool where each request for a report includes authentication credentials and parameters for the report generation, ensuring that each request can be fully understood in isolation.

Example

GET for retrieving resources, POST for creating new resources, PUT for updating resources, DELETE for removing resources.

Scenario

In a task management application, using POST /tasks to create a new task, PUT /tasks/{taskId} to update the task details, GET /tasks/{taskId} to retrieve task details, and DELETE /tasks/{taskId} to remove the task.

Example

Returning 200 OK for successful requests, 404 Not Found for invalid resources, and 500 Internal Server Error for server issues.

Scenario

When a user attempts to retrieve information about a non-existent product using GET /products/{id}, the server responds with 404 Not Found to indicate that the product does not exist.

Example

Using Accept and Content-Type headers to handle different formats like JSON and XML.

Scenario

A client specifies Accept: application/json in a request header to indicate preference for receiving JSON response. The server then responds with Content-Type: application/json and the JSON-formatted data.