Editing REST (section)

== History ==
[[File:Roy Fielding at OSCON 2008.jpg|thumb|[[Roy Fielding]] speaking at [[O'Reilly Open Source Convention|OSCON]] 2008]]
The Web began to enter everyday use in 1993–1994, when [[List of websites founded before 1995|websites for general use]] started to become available.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Couldry |first1=Nick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AcHvP9trbkAC&pg=PA2 |title=Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice |date=2012 |publisher=Polity Press |isbn=9780745639208 |location=London |page=2 |access-date=2021-06-09 |archive-date=2024-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227165043/https://books.google.com/books?id=AcHvP9trbkAC&pg=PA2#v=onepage&q&f=false |url-status=live }}</ref> At the time, only a fragmented description existed of the Web's architecture, and there was pressure within the industry to agree on a standard for the Web interface protocols. For instance, several experimental extensions had been added to the communication protocol (HTTP) to support [[Proxy_server|proxies]], and more extensions were being proposed, but there was a need for a formal Web architecture with which to evaluate the impact of these changes.<ref name=":0">{{cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |first=Roy Thomas |last=Fielding |title=Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures |chapter=Chapter&nbsp;6: Experience and Evaluation |publisher=University of California, Irvine |year=2000 |chapter-url=https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/evaluation.htm |access-date=2023-06-21 |archive-date=2023-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230326022001/https://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/evaluation.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[W3C]] and [[IETF]] [[Working_group#Technical_working_groups|working groups]] together started work on creating formal descriptions of the Web's three primary standards: [[URI]], [[HTTP]], and [[HTML]]. Roy Fielding was involved in the creation of these standards (specifically HTTP&nbsp;1.0 and 1.1, and URI), and during the next six years he created the REST architectural style, testing its constraints on the Web's [[Software standard | protocol standards]] and using it as a means to define architectural improvements&nbsp;— and to identify architectural mismatches. Fielding defined REST in his 2000 PhD dissertation "Architectural Styles and the Design of Network-based Software Architectures"<ref name="Fielding-Ch5" /><ref>{{cite web |title=Fielding discussing the definition of the REST term |url=https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/rest-discuss/conversations/topics/6735 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151105014201/https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/rest-discuss/conversations/topics/6735 |archive-date=November 5, 2015 |access-date=2017-08-08 |publisher=groups.yahoo.com}}</ref> at [[University of California, Irvine|UC Irvine]].

To create the REST architectural style, Fielding identified the requirements that apply when creating a world-wide network-based application, such as the need for a low entry barrier to enable global adoption. He also surveyed many existing architectural styles for network-based applications, identifying which features are shared with other styles, such as caching and client–server features, and those which are unique to REST, such as the concept of resources. Fielding was trying to both categorise the existing architecture of the current implementation and identify which aspects should be considered central to the behavioural and performance requirements of the Web.

By their nature, architectural styles are independent of any specific implementation, and while REST was created as part of the development of the Web standards, the implementation of the Web does not obey every constraint in the REST architectural style. Mismatches can occur due to ignorance or oversight, but the existence of the REST architectural style means that they can be identified before they become standardised. For example, Fielding identified the embedding of session information in URIs as a violation of the constraints of REST which can negatively affect shared caching and server scalability. [[HTTP cookies]] also violate REST constraints<ref name=":0" /> because they can become out of sync with the browser's application state, making them unreliable; they also contain opaque data that can be a concern for [[Internet privacy|privacy]] and [[Internet security|security]].