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Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallHTTP is a protocol; REST is an architectural style. HTTP defines how clients and servers exchange requests and responses, including standardized method and status-code semantics. REST describes architectural constraints for designing distributed systems. Using HTTP, JSON, and resource-shaped URLs does not by itself make an API RESTful.
What HTTP and REST mean
HTTP is a stateless, application-level protocol for distributed information systems. The IETF’s RFC 9110, published in June 2022, specifies HTTP semantics shared across versions; it is not a tutorial or a REST design guide. HTTP/1.1, HTTP/2, and HTTP/3 share those semantics but differ in message syntax and framing.
REST means Representational State Transfer. Roy Fielding described it as an architectural style for distributed hypermedia in his 2000 UC Irvine dissertation. Its constraints include client-server separation, stateless interaction, caching, a uniform interface, a layered system, and code-on-demand, which is optional in Fielding’s derivation.
HTTP APIs can adopt some REST-inspired conventions without satisfying REST’s full set of constraints. JSON is simply one possible representation format; neither JSON nor resource-like paths establishes that an API is RESTful.
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Resources, URIs, and representations
HTTP identifies a resource with a URI and transfers representations associated with it. A representation conveys information about the resource’s state in a selected format; it need not be a literal file or a byte-for-byte copy of an internal server object. This separation lets a service change its implementation without changing what clients receive, and supports negotiation over representation formats.
HTTP’s uniform interface uses standardized semantics rather than giving every application operation a wholly private meaning. Fielding calls that uniformity REST’s defining distinction: it makes interactions more visible and can support independent evolution of clients and services. The tradeoff is that a standardized interface may be less efficient than one tailored to a single application.
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What the common HTTP methods mean
Methods are not arbitrary labels for application functions. An API may define its own conventions, but clients, intermediaries, and developers benefit when the method matches its standardized meaning.
| Method | Meaning and practical use | Safety and idempotency |
|---|---|---|
| GET | Requests transfer of the current selected representation. A GET response may be cacheable subject to applicable cache controls. Avoid a request body unless the origin server has explicitly indicated support. | Safe and idempotent. |
| HEAD | Has GET-like response semantics but returns no response content. Useful when a client needs response metadata without the representation body. | Safe and idempotent. |
| POST | Asks the target resource to process the enclosed representation according to that resource’s semantics. It can be used to create something, but “POST means create” is too narrow as a general definition. | Not inherently safe or idempotent. |
| PUT | Requests that the target resource create or replace its state with the enclosed representation, subject to server rules. | Unsafe but idempotent. |
| DELETE | Requests removal of the association between the target resource and its current functionality. | Unsafe but idempotent. |
| OPTIONS | Asks for communication options for the target resource or server. | Safe and idempotent. |
RFC 9110 also defines TRACE as safe and idempotent. PATCH is specified separately from RFC 9110’s standard-method list, so its detailed semantics are not covered here. Method properties such as safety, idempotency, and cacheability are distinct: a method can have one property without having all the others.
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Safe is not the same as idempotent
A safe method is essentially read-only according to its defined semantics. That does not rule out incidental effects such as logging. GET, HEAD, OPTIONS, and TRACE are safe under RFC 9110.
A method is idempotent when repeating an identical request has the same intended effect on the server as making it once. PUT and DELETE are idempotent even though they are not safe: they request changes, but repeating the request should not multiply the intended change. This does not require every response to be identical. For example, a repeated DELETE can produce a different response while still having the same intended effect.
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When to retry a request
Idempotency helps a client decide whether a request can be repeated after a communication failure leaves it uncertain whether the server applied the first attempt. RFC 9110 explains that idempotent requests may be retried in certain failure cases. That is not permission to retry every failed request: automatically repeating a non-idempotent request can cause the action to happen more than once if the first attempt was applied but its response was lost.
- For an idempotent method, consider retrying when the failure leaves the outcome uncertain and the request is otherwise safe to repeat.
- For a non-idempotent method such as POST, do not retry automatically unless the client can establish that the original action was not applied or the application provides a reliable way to make repetition safe.
How to interpret HTTP status codes
Status codes are three-digit values from 100 to 599. The first digit communicates the outcome class, which lets a client handle a valid code even when it does not recognize that specific code.
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| Range | Class | General meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1xx | Informational | The request has been received and processing continues. |
| 2xx | Successful | The request was successfully received, understood, and accepted. |
| 3xx | Redirection | Further action is needed to complete the request. |
| 4xx | Client error | The request appears to have an error or cannot be fulfilled as sent. |
| 5xx | Server error | The server failed to fulfill an apparently valid request. |
Applications should rely on the numeric code and its defined semantics, not on a reason phrase as the machine-readable signal. The status communicates outcome information; the method still describes the kind of action requested.
How HTTP caching works
HTTP permits caching according to method semantics and cache controls; it does not mean every response will be stored or reused. GET and HEAD responses are cacheable subject to relevant controls. POST responses can be cacheable only under specified conditions. A GET method alone also does not make a response safe to share: the response directives and request context matter.
In REST, caching is an architectural constraint intended to improve reuse and reduce repeated work. Shared caches and intermediaries can help, but caching must match the data’s freshness and privacy requirements. Incorrectly reusable responses can be worse than no cache at all.
What makes an API RESTful in practice
Choosing standard methods and resource-oriented URIs is a useful start, not proof of REST. Fielding’s style also depends on constraints such as stateless interactions, cacheability, a uniform interface, and layered architecture. Its uniform interface and self-descriptive messages can make interactions more general and visible; hypermedia can help clients discover available actions. Those choices may add overhead compared with an application-specific interface.
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Use these questions to assess an API design:
- Do the URIs identify coherent resources, and do representations communicate their state clearly?
- Do method semantics and status codes match the requested action and outcome?
- Can responses be cached correctly, with freshness and sharing controlled as needed?
- Can each request be understood without relying on hidden session context from earlier requests?
- Would discoverability or hypermedia help clients navigate available actions?
- Do proxies, gateways, or other layers improve reuse and processing enough to justify their added complexity or latency?
REST’s constraints are architectural choices with consequences, not a checklist that every API must optimize identically. An API can use HTTP correctly without adopting every REST constraint; describe it accurately rather than calling every HTTP API RESTful.
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