On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 11:43 AM, Terry Chay tchay@wikimedia.org wrote:
Again, I feel a more important aspect of REST is that the interface is extremely narrow: basically a representation of a resource (URL) and a set of 4 CRUD commands (create read update delete = post get put delete). The fact that each resource is independent and each action is stateless, allows it to be highly scalable. But you are correct, that REST has the advantage over non-RESTful APIs in that the access language is defined naturally in the protocol, rather than convention.
I'd like to point out that the REST API for the Socialtext wiki is very very well-designed: https://www.socialtext.net/st-rest-docs/
Every action possible in the Socialtext wiki UI is also possible via a call to a REST endpoint, and the REST endpoints are simple to manipulate. The entire application is a thin presentation layer on top of a killer wiki engine all driven via the REST API. (Or it was when I last involved with it, and given that Audrey Tang was last to update the API docs, I'd guess that is still true.)
To the best of my knowledge this API is still in use, although there is no longer an open source version of the Socialtext wiki available. (Although if anyone really wants a Socialtext wiki to experiment with, I think I could get you one.)
-Chris