(REpresentational State Transfer) A software architecture for distributed services over the Web. Introduced in 2000 by Roy Fielding, one of the authors of HTTP, REST is used to implement Web services using HTTP and XML. Considered a lighter weight and simpler approach to Web services than the more complex SOAP protocol, "RESTful" Web services make use of standard URLs and HTTP verbs. REST concepts predate SOAP but were brought back into focus after developers gained experience with SOAP implementations. See WADL and SOAP.
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