REST APIs are built around six fundamental principles, some of which we have already touched on. Let’s take a closer look at each of the six principles below.
- Uniform Interface: This principle simplifies the architecture by establishing a standard communication method for clients and servers. This uniformity decouples clients from the server, allowing them to evolve independently as long as the interface remains consistent.
- Client-Server Separation: This separation of concerns enhances the portability of the user interface across multiple platforms and improves scalability by simplifying the server components. The client and the server operate independently, and changes on one side don’t directly impact the other.
- Statelessness: In a stateless architecture, each client request must contain all the necessary information for the server to process it. The server does not store any state about the client session on the server between requests, which simplifies design and increases reliability.
- Cacheable: Making responses cacheable can significantly improve performance by reducing the need for clients to fetch the same data repeatedly. Proper caching management helps ensure clients have up-to-date information and reduces the load on the server.
- Layered System: This principle allows an architecture to consist of hierarchical layers by restricting the behavior of components in each layer. Clients interact with a layer without knowing whether it’s the end server or an intermediary. This adds to the flexibility and scalability of the system.
- Code on Demand (optional): This constraint allows servers to extend or customize the functionality of a client by sending executable code (such as JavaScript). It can reduce the client’s complexity by offloading some functionality to the server, but it’s less common than the other constraints.
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