RESTful Web Services Cookbook: Solutions for Improving Scalability and Simplicity

by Subbu Allamaraju

While the REST design philosophy has captured the imagination of web and enterprise developers alike, using this approach to develop real web services is no picnic. This cookbook includes more than 100 recipes to help you take advantage of REST, HTTP, and the infrastructure of the Web. You'll learn ways to design RESTful web services for client and server applications that meet performance, scalability, reliability, and security goals, no matter what programming language and development framework you use. Each recipe includes one or two problem statements, with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions for solving them, as well as examples using HTTP requests and responses, and XML, JSON, and Atom snippets. You'll also get implementation guidelines, and a discussion of the pros, cons, and trade-offs that come with each solution.

Genres: Programming, Technical, Software, Nonfiction, Technology, Web, Reference

316 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Michael Koltsov · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great collection of recipes to cook your web services. Unfortunately it's a bit outdated, but from my perspective most of its parts are still relevant. It's sort of a book that's easy to read and easy to comprehend, i would recommend it to anyone who strives to build robust and scalable web apps.

My score 4/5

[Miloš · Rating 2 out of 5]

An example of a book that hasn't aged too well - while most of the advice is still sound, most of it is now common knowledge. Also, some recipes are too dated for today's RESTful ecosystem, especially the reliance on Atom and XML. But all in all, an okay read, especially considering the publication date.

[Marcin Golenia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I reached for this book because of many bad APIs that I have worked with (and contributed to), it helped me to fix my RESTful API understanding, bad habits, bad beliefs.

One may say that the book has its age but REST didn't change. HTTP 1.1 is described in few places and it would be nice to see updated content, however HTTP 2.0 didn't change much when it comes to REST api design. All in all it would be nice to see how it helps REST api to be more performant because of new wire format, multiplexing and compression.

It also lacks the REST 6 constraints. The mostly used xml in responses/requests is annoying but it can be easily translated to json "on the go in your head".

All in all the book is well written, despite the "Cookbook form" you can get many answers and it will serve as a great reference in case of any doubts in the future. I really like the parts related to links, client/server decoupling, caching and not so obvious stuff like doing copying, moving, and merging resources.

This book is very needed in the IT industry. If you do REST, read it.

[Ozgur Ozturk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I haven't been developing a restful service. I had too many questions in my mind about restful services. I found answers based on best practices. My latest conclusion is this book a refinement of big experience.

[Nikita Khizhnyak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book to refresh and detail your knowledge about REST. Containt bestpractices for REST services design which is not depend on any platform\framework.
Contains some spefific information about ATOM, but well structured so you can just skip some parts if you don't need it.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid reference for anyone designing, implementing, and integrating web services. May be a bit dry, but helpful for this generation of developers!

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent resource for anyone designing or building a RESTful web API! It is extremely well written and concise considering the amount of material covered. The overall layout and flow of the book is surprisingly good too, considering it takes a "cookbook" style format. I ended up reading it cover to cover, re-referencing items as needed. The choice of topics covered are very well thought out too, and the descriptions of the problems and solutions in each topic are just as good. It is obvious that the author has had extensive experience designing and building web systems. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in RESTful architectures and design.

[Sumit · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is not an introduction to REST. But if you are already aware of what REST is, and are looking for a set of solutions to implement it, this is a book you must own. Practical and useful, this is definitely a practitioners handbook. The only drawback (in my view) is that the examples are mostly in AtomPub, rather than in JSON or XML.

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

My experience with this book was similar to that described in Charles Bihis' review. I also read it cover to cover, and have found it useful for foundational reference. I highly recommend this introduction to RESTful web services for software engineers.

[Brett Dargan · Rating 4 out of 5]

practical advice, good rationale.

[Carlos is on The StoryGraph · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm still reading this, but I think this should be essential reading for anyone writing or designing a remote API.

[Ken Weinert]

False

[Artur Gadelshin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one is a very useful book, which describe pragmatic REST concept.

[Dwight Walker]

good for my Web business

[Sridhar Jammalamadaka · Rating 5 out of 5]

Go to book for RESTful web services. As the book claims, it is a cookbook. Useful as a reference while developing RESTful Web Services. I liked the chapters on Security and Caching.

[Artur Sabirov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much XML