Actual examples for HATEOAS (REST-architecture)

pmf picture pmf · Jul 16, 2009 · Viewed 46.5k times · Source

as everyone may have noticed, there are lot of fake/rudimentary REST-APIs in the wild (which implement a HTTP-API and call it REST without following the hypertext-as-the-engine-of-application-state requirement, which led to the famous rant of Roy T. Fielding, the man who first specified the REST-paradigm).

I've been unable to find any practical examples of a truly hypertext driven REST-implementation along with the associated application-specific media-type definitions for the state transitions.

Are there any publicly accessible examples of such implementations?

Answer

trendels picture trendels · Jul 16, 2009

Its not an implementation in the sense of running code, but I really like the article "How to GET a cup of coffee" on InfoQ. It describes the process of ordering a coffee at Starbucks as a RESTful protocol. This goes beyond the typical "everything is a resource" REST introductory article and focuses on HATEOAS. Highly recommended.