HATEOAS: Your REST API Might Just Be CRUD
Teams often claim “we have a REST API in place.” But when you look at the actual JSON responses, there are no links anywhere. Just raw data. That’s not REST, it’s CRUD exposed over HTTP. The difference comes down to one principle most developers overlook: HATEOAS. What Is HATEOAS in a REST API? HATEOAS stands for Hypermedia As The Engine Of Application State. It is one of the fundamental constraints of REST, defined by Roy Fielding in his 2000 dissertation, the same paper that coined the term REST itself. ...