| I'm with you on this one. Probably the confusion comes from the fact a lot of people think having a verb in their URI makes the API RPC, while only having nouns is the proper REST. But the whole verbs vs nouns debate in the context of REST sounds a bit like... arguing whether building a round or square control tower out of straw will attract more cargo. HATEOAS is the cornerstone of REST, this is what sets it apart from RPC-style applications, not the absence or presence of verbs in URIs. Think of a regular (that is non-SPA) Django, RoR, etc application. The user points their browser to the app's home page. The backed receives the HTTP request, renders the HTML, and sends it back to the browser. The browser renders the HTML and lets the user interact with all the control elements on the page. When the user clicks a button or follows a link, the browser sends the corresponding HTTP request to the backed which inspects it and decides what next HTML page (or maybe the same) representing the state of app should be transferred to the user. This is basically REST. The key to notice here is at no point in this example the browser gets to decide what the app's "flow" is supposed to be -- this is the sole responsibility of the backend. A consequence of this is the entire structure of pages (aka resources) can undergo a drastic change at any moment, but as long as the home page URI stays the same, the user doesn't suddenly need another browser to access the app. If changing a resource's URI, or removing a resource altogether can break an existing client, if an existing client cannot make use of a new resource without changes to the client's sources -- that's RPC even if there's not a single verb in the API URIs. Most likely this architectural style isn't something that first comes to mind when we think of today's mobile apps or SPAs as API clients. And in my opinion it's just not a good fit for most of them: the server isn't expected to drive their flow, it just exposes an API and lets each client come up with its own UX/UI. |